[SPOILER] Did she tell him?

[Darth Biomech]

Interesting idea. I think in the game world two cortex chips always means two conciousnesses, and you can't just "fuse" them without destroying and reconstructing them.
Or if it were possible, Simon would exist as two interlinked bodies, and killing half of his "body" would be tremendously painful.

Idea is that you make a connection between two minds, that constantly transfer data both ways, not physical fusing of two chips. No conscious gets coin of "left behind", since they diffuse into each other to form a single new entity that is direct uninterrupted continuation of both of them. I believe if this sync will be done right after the copy upload activation, it will feels almost like you suddenly gained second body, instead of sensation of merging with another person, since there will be virtually zero differences between the two of you.
And if you just shut down one of the bodies I doubt it will be painful. Unpleasant, maybe, you'd be insta-losing half of the perception that you grown to be used to, but that's still better than the other option.

[grrrz]

In the end, where Catherine says Simon had been too ignorant to understand that there was a 50% chance they'd get on the Ark, did she actually clearly say it anywhere in the game? Or did she only hint towards it?

Got any quotes?

This is made abundantly clear when you change your body earlier in the game, there is probably an explanation but it's like the central point of the game, when you have to decide if you kill you other self or not. yes it's a freaking hint.
(and it's not really a 50% chance, both Simon will exist at this point one in the Ark, one left behind)

---

I really liked how Simon reacted, despite some criticizing it. It's a commonly-held belief that one's own consciousness and mind are somehow special and that you as yourself can't 'end'. In reality, Simon 2 was never transferred, the player was experiencing memories of Simon and Simon-2, no 'coin toss' at all.

"NO NO, I'M A SUPER SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE, MY CONSCIOUSNESS BREAKS THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, NOPE NOPE" is what a lot of people and me (at times)think, that we can't somehow be a product of nature and our consciousness being a bunch of neurons firing, our minds are somehow magical and break reality.

yeah just put yourself in his shoes to understand his reaction, even if intellectually he probably knew (as we did, but yet as the player WE didn't really thought this through either did we?); the situation is dreadful, and he's totally pissed, and he may probably as well kill himself.

[Striker]

In the end, where Catherine says Simon had been too ignorant to understand that there was a 50% chance they'd get on the Ark, did she actually clearly say it anywhere in the game? Or did she only hint towards it?

Got any quotes?

This is made abundantly clear when you change your body earlier in the game, there is probably an explanation but it's like the central point of the game, when you have to decide if you kill you other self or not. yes it's a freaking hint.
(and it's not really a 50% chance, both Simon will exist at this point one in the Ark, one left behind)

---

I really liked how Simon reacted, despite some criticizing it. It's a commonly-held belief that one's own consciousness and mind are somehow special and that you as yourself can't 'end'. In reality, Simon 2 was never transferred, the player was experiencing memories of Simon and Simon-2, no 'coin toss' at all.

"NO NO, I'M A SUPER SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE, MY CONSCIOUSNESS BREAKS THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, NOPE NOPE" is what a lot of people and me (at times)think, that we can't somehow be a product of nature and our consciousness being a bunch of neurons firing, our minds are somehow magical and break reality.

yeah just put yourself in his shoes to understand his reaction, even if intellectually he probably knew (as we did, but yet as the player WE didn't really thought this through either did we?); the situation is dreadful, and he's totally pissed, and he may probably as well kill himself.

What happened when Cat had her cortex chip transferred from the robot on the floor to the Omnitool? Was that a copy, or was she just moving the chip to a new home?

At the time I thought she was just moving her conscious to a new home, though the mechanics of continuity within the context of the game hadn't been explained yet.