SOMA Philosophical Questionnaire

[Vaeh]

Spoiler below!

1. Do you think consciousness is physical or nonphysical?
A. Physical.
I believe that for consciousness to appear, no matter how primitive, some sorts of physical container is required, whether it's organic matter like brain, or some sorts of a device able to send and receive impulses accordingly.

2. Would you use a Star Trek transporter (assuming it's in perfect condition)?
A. Yes.

3. Would you help a terminally ill person commit suicide (disregarding legal issues)?
A. Yes.
If they wanted to

4. Are you religious?
C. No.

5. How do you think your viewpoint changes throughout the game?
C. I play as a single Simon (ignoring the post-credits scene).
To each of those Simons we encounter or hear of, they were the "one true Simon" based on their POV. The story is integral and unbroken to us just like it would be to them.

6. How do you feel about the "continuity enthusiasts" at Theta?
A. They had the right idea.
I think that Sarang had a brilliant idea about this, that was at the same time impossible to work. Considering theories like Shroedinger's cat, there is a possibility that for a single, impossibly short amount of time, our consciousness exists simultaneously both as a scan and on Earth at once. If we were to choose just a single outcome in that short moment, we could potentially end up on the Ark like Sarang said we would, but of course in real life we have no control over it. So good thought experiment, not possible to be accomplished.

7. Do you think the WAU could restore a dead person's consciousness?
B. No. It can only create a new consciousness.
Although there isn't enough information to definitely say what WAU can and cannot do, I doubt it would be able to extract consciousness from corpses that already had the time to decompose completely

8. In Simon's shoes, would you view the ARK as a possible escape route?
A. Yes. I'm guaranteed to get on the ARK.

9. What value do you place on robot Carl Semken's life?
A. His life is as valuable as a human life.
He was thinking, speaking, interacting. It was him, just with a piece of machinery as his physical container

10. What value do you place on simulated Brandon Wan's life?
A. His life is as valuable as a human life.

11. Before leaving Omicron, what's the right thing to do?
B. Kill Simon-2.
No right thing to do.

12. Is Johan Ross closer to a hero or a villain?
Neither. He was a man pursuing his idea of morality and view on human life; he had solid reasons to destroy WAU

13. How do you feel about the WAU?
A. The WAU is humanity's best shot at survival.
B. The WAU is unpredictable; it may or may not save humanity.
Both conclude to A. A tiny percentage of chance it will save us is still humanity's best shot. Being an artificial intelligence learning from pretty much nothing, the more iterations it would go through, the best it would become on recreating life as it is supposed to be. It's like all those programs that learn to walk, except smarter.

14. How do you feel about the ARK?
B. The ARK is valuable as a record of human history.
It's more of a record really, there's just that much the ARK is able to do with its limited memory and capabilities, and we don't know if it's possible for those people to ever reach out beyond their virtual world to, for example, establish contact.