The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[Googolplex]

Yea it has best story, but gameplay was none. I mean is this gonna be interactive movie or game ?

For what I saw more like interactive movie. No hud also gives sense of immersion like you're really there. Don't know will it be inventory system?

SOMA is absolutely not like an interactive movie. There aren't even cutscenes. Until Dawn is an interactive movie. And the fact that there is no HUD is very well game design. As you said it brings sense of immersion. But no HUD doesn't mean it is more movie than game.

[TiManGames]

SOMA is absolutely not like an interactive movie. There aren't even cutscenes. Until Dawn is an interactive movie. And the fact that there is no HUD is very well game design. As you said it brings sense of immersion. But no HUD doesn't mean it is more movie than game.

+1

[GhylTarvoke]

Animals feel pain, but robots not.
To say animals won't feel pain is just laughable.

Animals are biological organisms while robots are artificially objects built by mankind. No robot would be able to feel real emotions like love, fear or pain. And no robot would even be able to young witnesses by having sex with an other robot.

How do you know that animals feel pain, or that robots don't? Why does it matter if something is artificial or biological? Everything in the universe is built from the same set of fundamental particles.

[Damascus Rose]

I think what the question is saying is that this robot has sensors that can tell when it's being hit, and is programmed to react to it and cry out. Animals are the same way and have the same programming but are biological. We know that we as animals feel pain, so other animals feel pain as well because they have a brain and the same nerves. But a robot designed the same way, does it feel?

[GhylTarvoke]

We know that we as animals feel pain, so other animals feel pain as well because they have a brain and the same nerves.

This is a reasonable assumption, but still an assumption. Our brains are far more complex than those of other animals. It's impossible for us to know what animals (even humans!) feel, or whether they're feeling anything at all.

Note that "pain", as Frictional uses it, does not mean "unpleasant stimulation of nerves". Frictional is referring to the qualia of pain.

[Googolplex]

How do you know that animals feel pain, or that robots don't? Why does it matter if something is artificial or biological? Everything in the universe is built from the same set of fundamental particles.

I had two dogs and believe me, they feel pain. People who say animals don't feel pain must be from moon.

This is a reasonable assumption, but still an assumption. Our brains are far more complex than those of other animals. It's impossible for us to know what animals (even humans!) feel, or whether they're feeling anything at all.

Are you serious?

[ShadowDraft]

But pain (as GhylTarvoke described it already) is a stimulation of the nervous system. An electrical signal send to our brain which processes it.

Would it change anything if it wasn't a robot but an android? Or maybe even a cyborg but that's going into a heavy mix between biological and mechanical being.

There's even an example of a chip which enables feelings in a mechanical person in Star Trek.

[GhylTarvoke]

How do you know that animals feel pain, or that robots don't? Why does it matter if something is artificial or biological? Everything in the universe is built from the same set of fundamental particles.

I had two dogs and believe me, they feel pain. People who say animals don't feel pain must be from moon.

Unless you're telepathic, your only evidence that they felt pain was their reaction. But Frictional's hypothetical robot reacts in the same way.

This is a reasonable assumption, but still an assumption. Our brains are far more complex than those of other animals. It's impossible for us to know what animals (even humans!) feel, or whether they're feeling anything at all.

Are you serious?

Dead serious. I believe animals can feel (in the philosophical sense, not merely the biological sense), because that's my instinct as a human being. But I can't prove it, and neither can anyone else. That's one of SOMA's main points.

[Googolplex]

The reaction doesn't matter. Animals can feel psychological pain, when for example an elephant mother lose her child. No robot would feel pains like that. It's not just about a stimulation of nervous system. Every robot can react as you developed it, but "it" wouldn't feel something, because it has no personality, no soul. Animals have souls. Robots are only scrap material.

When you ask, you are a murder when you play an ego-shooter.

[Sampyli]

Every robot can react as you developed it, but "it" wouldn't feel something, because it has no personality, no soul. Animals have souls. Robots are only scrap material.

.. but the robots in SOMA seem to have conciousnesses and personalities, ergo I think the point here wan't to question whether animals can feel pain, but whether robots can. (At least the robots in question, meaning the ones in the game.)