Is a computer with all my memories “me” - Does Wendy act like Marcy or feel like Marcy to those who knew Marcy? Is the immortal Wendy who talks to Xenomorphs the same as 12-year-old human Marcy?

The argument I’ve heard is that because her brain is synthetic, even with the memories, she isn’t Marcy. I’m not sure how I feel yet. I’d like to know more about how her synthetic brain works. She makes emotional decisions, which helps me accept her as Marcy, but I’m reserving judgement.

Once you start transferring consciousness, you get into the question of what is a copy and what is real. Is simply having access to someone's memories the same as being that person? Or being a person at all? She is Wendy-inspired. Not sure she's actually Wendy.

For example... if you can just make a copy, then can you make two? Could you put a copy of her in two different bodies? If so, which one is her? Are they both? How does that work?

She's a manipulable consciousness put into a synthetic body. Seems like there's at least SOME blurring of lines.

They’re digital copies like Superman’s AI dad. BK used their memories for baseline code.

Yeah, she could be a new being that just has Marcy’s memories.

Did I miss where the original synthetic bodies came from?

I’m assuming she’s sentient, has Marcy’s consciousness, as opposed to like an LLM that generates Marcy-like responses based on a dataset of her experience. But maybe I’m a sucker!

I mean, I mostly think that, too. I'm just saying there's an argument that *could* be made that Wendy /= Marcy. If I could somehow upload all of my memories into your brain, would you be me, or would you still be you?

Not sure if I missed something but are we sure they uploaded Marcy’s *memories* and only that?

I don't know exactly. I believe she is mostly Marcy. I'm just responding to @mattmitovich.bsky.social's initial question about how there could be any argument at all.

I mean, much of this is addressed by one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy, Freaky Friday

It really is amazing how Hawley decided his take was to the greatest horror movie ever made into a body swap comedy.

There's a special lightshow in the lab, and the talk about how only childrens' minds are flexible enough for the upload process, hinting that there's *something* science-fictionally more there. Unclear what that would be, though.

they do underline that even if her consciousness is an exact copy, it inhabits a body with no naturally occurring hormones or neurochemistry, so at best it’s “Marcy” on a shitload of psychoactive drugs

Think about it this way, she has an emotional bond to her brother. She cares about him, what happens to him. That makes her Marcy. If she were not Marcy, why would she care? Slighyly is having the same situation with his mother now that Morrow has threatened her. It's more than memories. IMO ✌️

right, it raises the question of -- isn't humanity inherently tied to the limitations and failures and weaknesses of the body, and once you lost that, don't you lose an element of the experience?

Now you’re getting into a concept behind many religions, that consciousness, or a soul, can exist separate from the body. I say this as an atheist, but I believe if my consciousness could somehow be extracted from my physical form, I would remain myself. But ofc the experience would be different

You say that because in 2025, there's a seemingly unbridgeable gap between those things.

Sorry to nose in (shilling my podcast, sorry) but even the writers and actors disagreed on this. Sydney Chandler said she played Wendy as waking up thinking she was the same person in a new body—has all of Marcy's memories—but that changes over the season, because of what the body can do.

Absolutely makes sense and it's DEFINITELY an evolving concern. I'm not making the argument that she ISN'T his sister as the argument I would stand by, just that it's not an unreasonable argument to make.

Definitely. And I'm inclined toward the idea that Wendy is a very sophisticated synth that thinks it is human. But then, I also hold onto the hope that the Heisenberg compensator means the Star Trek transporter doesn't just murder people and replicate exact copies, so.

Yeah, I guess the way I see it, when Marcy ended, Wendy began. And there is no being on Earth more Marcy than Wendy. Her having evolved perhaps differently is mot much different than if Marcy spent a summer away with an aunt in London.

You're enlightened! Imagine if this wasn't science fiction and it involved somebody you loved and the data that represented some version of their memories was put into a body that looked NOTHING like them and shared ZERO DNA. Would you instantly call them your relative? Or... something else.

If you believe in the soul. She isn't. If you are a vulgar materialist with no spiritual beliefs, no one is themselves, and our sapience is the result of a part of the brain which asserts the reflexive property (I am I).

Certain types of brain damage result in ppl not believing they exist in the 1st person sense. So, I would say that in either case, she is not Marcy. But, we assert a lot about the world, so if Hermit believes she is Marcy she is to him -- even if I would say she is an amazing simulation.

But, if you are a silicon valley type who is "too smart" to believe in religion but fears death enough to fool yourself into thinking that the singularity can provide you a digital afterlife -- then yeah she is Marcy.

she's a product, she's IP, protected Prodigy technology. if she's still his sister, they can't own her. her entire consciousness is there, the very consciousness that humans feel makes us human in the first place, so they redefine terms to suit their needs, the way elites do already

A friend pointed out that the fact that Prodigy claims “We don’t know” if she’s really his sister seems like a good indication that she isn’t. “If they had created a functional duplicate of a human mind then copied the structure and impulses into the simulation, they would know they’d done that.”