From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Duh! Part 2.
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2003 18:08:50 -0500

> >Crush wrote:
> >Roy,
> >Would you be willing to undergo surgery if you were told that you would
not
> >survive the operation "but this little boy here will be receiving all
your
> >memories" (like Thecla did with Severian only without Sev's memories)?

>Nutria responded:
> I'm not Roy, but my understanding of what is being suggested is that
> consciousness, not memories, would be downloaded.

Crush reponds:
I'm curious what in your opinion the actual difference would be in the
procedure Roy has proposed?

Transferring a soul would be something only God could do. Doctors would just
transfer the memories as a complete template. When Thecla's memories are
absorbed by Severian, she comes to life inside him. Rose's "soul" (in an
Animist/Spiritualist/Judeo/Christian/Muslim/Hindu/traditional-Buddhist
sense) does not continue to exists in Marble. Only her memories and the
conclusions she held based on those memories (yet her POV was still subject
to evolution within Marble). Based on an answer Wolfe gave to a question I
posed during the scifi.com online chat, Wolfe seems to (to a significant
extent anyway) equate identity with memory.

Something I forgot to mention is that Lemur did not consider Typhon or his
family to have in any real way "lived on" in Mainframe. He called them
"ghosts" (ironic considering his own name) -- spectres of actual persons
long dead. And when he discovered that his bio body had died, he was stunned
and horrified. Clearly  Lemur did not consider his "consciousness"
completely transferred to a chem to be valid -- in his mind he had become a
"ghost" or "simulation" (in Fifth Head terms).

-- Crush


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