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Post by saardvark on Jun 27, 2019 1:36:04 GMT
The robot religion stuff is a pretty good allegory to people seeking Transhumanisim, those which seek to move past their own limited bodies, upload their minds, defeat death, that sort of stuff. You have to give up the pleasure and pains of the flesh to live forever, and what does forever give you? Except it's actually the complete opposite. The robots are almost explicitly spelled out as children trying to understand their parents decisions. This transformation isn't to get away from humanity, it's to become closer to it to try to understand why they are here. They certainly aren't rejecting death. The religion springing up is an illustration in this case of someone very young not having the perspective to understand that, for example, this is just an early-stage experiment and attaching far more weight to it and a barely-related statement that came with it (although to be fair, it is extremely important to them). Their surrogate mother figure in Kat is also too young to realise she needs to deal with them as children in that sense. She also lacks a lot of the perspective too since she's still growing up herself. On the other hand, while the robot religion sure is taking off, the jury is still out on how it really got started. Indeed, it is almost the inverse of Transhumanism. Its Trans-robotism! To understand their parents (humans), they move past their (nearly) unlimited immortal metal bodies and upload their minds into frail limited human vessels, embracing weakness and death, surrendering immortality to gain pleasure, emotion and pain and a deeper understanding of their creators. |
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Post by merry76 on Jun 27, 2019 6:51:30 GMT
Well, now someone needs to kill Arthur to find out if they need a medium to guide them, or if they are just flesh things that stop working when their bodies "break".
To elaborate:
If a Robot gets destroyed in a robot body, no medium is needed because it isnt a living thing.
Does having a living body make you deserve an etheric representation, or do you need a soul for that?
A soul cant be a function of complexity, because ants have them - and ants are pretty simple. Arthur was way more complex than ants or most (if not all) animals.
Does arthur have a soul now? Everything indicates that he didnt before the transfer. So did the transfer create one? Maybe the soul part comes in with the arrow. But that would mean that arthur ist the first AND last of his kind because even if they built his sexual organs so they work, it is highly possible that he is sterile (creating an organ that produces sperm containing your dna might be possible, but very likly far future tech for us and/or the court).
Of course, having the etherical realm represented in the comic like it is (there is even a realm of the dead), the robots do have something to find out at all. IRL we just stop working (I dont think I have a soul).
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Post by theonethatgotaway on Jun 27, 2019 7:17:37 GMT
Next thing Arthur does: "Huh, I see there's a /growth subroutine in my systems now, let me just readjust to you Juliet" *Arthur shortens his legs, but forgets his arms, Arthur now looks like a human box bot... OH NO! He does have a /growth subroutine now but it's subconscious and NOT for the limbs. Your abrupt change of subject while previously discussing robot penises confused my train of thought, so to me it seemed that you were talking about that kinda growth Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Don't think about pink elephants!! |
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Post by speedwell on Jun 27, 2019 12:37:45 GMT
Does having a living body make you deserve an etheric representation, or do you need a soul for that? A soul cant be a function of complexity, because ants have them - and ants are pretty simple. Arthur was way more complex than ants or most (if not all) animals. Does arthur have a soul now? Everything indicates that he didnt before the transfer. So did the transfer create one? Maybe the soul part comes in with the arrow. But that would mean that arthur ist the first AND last of his kind because even if they built his sexual organs so they work, it is highly possible that he is sterile (creating an organ that produces sperm containing your dna might be possible, but very likly far future tech for us and/or the court). Of course, having the etherical realm represented in the comic like it is (there is even a realm of the dead), the robots do have something to find out at all. IRL we just stop working (I dont think I have a soul). It's long been my gut feeling that Gunnerkrigg (court and forest) is a simulation (I don't mean in the "it's a comic, stupid" sense, I mean literally in the comic), and that souls are things you have if you have them, because the rules say you have them. |
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Post by csj on Jun 27, 2019 12:54:08 GMT
You construct
intricate rituals
which allow you
to touch the
synthskin of other robots
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Post by todd on Jun 27, 2019 13:27:48 GMT
Well, now someone needs to kill Arthur to find out if they need a medium to guide them, or if they are just flesh things that stop working when their bodies "break". The scary part is that the Court would probably take that suggestion seriously. |
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Post by merry76 on Jun 28, 2019 5:58:49 GMT
Well, now someone needs to kill Arthur to find out if they need a medium to guide them, or if they are just flesh things that stop working when their bodies "break". The scary part is that the Court would probably take that suggestion seriously. Its what they do. Or probably already did in the past in some form or other. |
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