The Nightstar Zoo

Moral question:

Assuming no malicious tampering (which is how the case at this moment must appear to the doctors)

If person A, through circumstances, changes his character and behaviour into A', and A' has behavior we feel inconsistent with A, can we just 'remove' A' and reinstate A, simply because we have the technical ability?

After all, aren't we all 'corrupted' by our past experiences? I am pretty sure I am a different person than I would have been if I had a different (more sheltered maybe, or more exposed) life. We are all constantly slowly changing who we are.

Our current medical ability is that if A' has behavior we do not like, people around him will try to modify A' back to what we think A should have been. Here talk is to just snuff out A' and replace by A[backup]. It is very similar but the other side of the 'discontinuity' problem often discussed and therefore, I feel, murder.

Especially since the doctors are willing to contemplate this, without knowing he is a infiltration of hostile force, but only showing minor character changes. Behaving less like a blue haired hippy and more like a concise mechanic maybe. If that's enough, what to do with all those people that lived through a stroke or mental trauma's? Had we the ability, should be 'undo' them all?

At this time, they're pretty confident that he's picked up behaviors, thought processes, and manerisms which are completly foreign to him, and inexplicable for him to have. They know they never wrote memories of standing at attention to that gav, and they know he shouldn't have had time to learn that behavior the normal way.

So, either his mental backup was corrupted accidently, by swapping blood with a soldier or something...

or it's been corrupted deliberatly.

either way, they're planned solution is apparently to try using the SECOND backup to restore him.... maybe red #2 writes two time-phased copies to different halves of the skin or something.

Very thin evidence. "He is standing up straight, not his usual slouch. Best kill him"

He may as well, after his 'near' death experience, have made some resolution to improve his life. It will wear off in a few weeks.

But more importantly, even if he really has modded in a different personality, why does that mean he must die? I revert to my remark about other causes that make us change our personality. I am not the person I was 10 years ago, must I die and be replace by a backup?

You seem to stick to the knowledge you already have about him being an agent. Shed that, look only at what can be known.

The "asynchronous backup" might also be external like Schlock's, and it might be made weekly or something, while red #2's skin backup is essentially real-time.

Obviously, to the Gav doctor, this change implies to her more than it does to Doctor Bunnigus. We'll find out soon enough what that is.

Standing at ease is not standing straight. It's not a normal position to assume, it must be trained into.
Look again at the panel. The hands aren't merely clasped behind him and dangling, they're clasped behind him and held at waist level. That means that you have to physically hold them up (unless you surreptitiously hook a thumb into the waistband of your trousers in back). I have never seen ANYbody in all my long years just naturally assume that particular stance unless they've had considerable prior encouragement.

I agree with Krennson and TheOTHERmaninblack. The way Bunni and the Gavdoc have reacted to the changes, they definitely believe there's something in there that was neither original Gav nor put in intentionally by The Can nor developed naturally. In which case something is very much amiss...

I think this is a very bad idea, actually. They're about to reboot something they don't understand, which may well result in the package activating properly the way it didn't the first time.

I am going to unreservedly point and laugh at these chickenheads when it blows up in their face. I have called foul on this dodgy operation FROM THE VERY START, because I don't understand how their scientific curiosity seems to be clouding their common sense.

Oh look a shiny unidentified object floating through space, let's poke about in it! Oh but wait, before we do that, let's go right ahead and fiddle about in our genetics, see what turns up. What's the worst that could happen? It's not like the UNS could infiltrate us or anything, quit with the crazy talk already!

It's almost like the Toughs are the only ones remotely interested in getting paid and staying solvent. And not so much these days, at that. Come to think of it, when was the last time they got paid, or even worried about getting paid? I remember when Tagon used to hustle for every pay-cheque and actually bust out his happy dance. Now it's all doom and gloom and and someone dying every other week or someone needing to be rescued or something.

At least when the Gavs blow themselves up there'll be lots of pretty lights.

_________________
"You think you know munitions? Darling you don’t know jack. What do you know about micro-missiles and nerve disruptors? What do you know of micro-janglers and variable grenades? Have you ever seen an e-dust commando? No? Well come talk to me when you earn your claws. It’s a big universe out there and most of it is trying to kill you already."

'Big' Kat Mikkelson to John. J. Johnson on his first day at boot camp.

In comic time, about two or three weeks ago, when they were working four different jobs to pay for the rebuild of Touch And Go. They've been kind of busy since then, between kidnappings and a wedding.

Assuming they get paid per job (as opposed to monthly/weekly/other regular intervals), that's two or three weeks that they've been faffing about. Even this security gig with the Gavs is only going to pay off if the Gavs don't blow themselves up or worse, get blown up by the UNS. Did Tagon even ask for half down?

Whatever happened to asking for half down?

_________________
"You think you know munitions? Darling you don’t know jack. What do you know about micro-missiles and nerve disruptors? What do you know of micro-janglers and variable grenades? Have you ever seen an e-dust commando? No? Well come talk to me when you earn your claws. It’s a big universe out there and most of it is trying to kill you already."

'Big' Kat Mikkelson to John. J. Johnson on his first day at boot camp.

The apparent working theory is that the backup in his skin was corrupted. The "async backup" is probably the recording made of Binnie's state as he left the can last time. You're not thinking in Schlockiverse terms. They could grow a whole new Binnie body and download the asynchronous backup into that body's brain. They could then analyze the exact differences and determine exactly how the corruption occurred. This trick is done quite often with computers which have been infected by virii, worms, and trojans. It could easily be done in the 31st century with technology we've seen and/or heard about.

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"A sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke
"Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
Jack L. Chalker
"Magic is just another way of saying 'I don't know how it works.'"
Larry Niven

If you've ever read Nukees you'd KNOW that Gav's "normal" response is "Oh; something shiny. Let's poke it and see what happens." His friend Danny will probably suggest using a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong stick, while everybody else runs away. Keep in mind that while all these different people look and sound different, and have different memories, in many ways, it's all just an overlay on top of Gav v1.0, who got himself massively copied and killed, in that order. Remember when someone questioned Kevyn's remark that Tagon wasn't the sharpest knifwe in the drawer, and Kevyn admitted that it really depended on the drawer? Well, Gav is NOT the sharpest knife in every drawer. In many drawers, he's a spoon. And it's easy for spoons to get killed in those drawers, often by highly-sharpened spoons.

_________________
===============================================
"A sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke
"Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology."
Jack L. Chalker
"Magic is just another way of saying 'I don't know how it works.'"
Larry Niven

Then you don't understand scientists. Besides, this coming from the guy who came up with the guard robot that explodes anytime someone looks at it funny? Scientific curiosity overriding common sense is what scientists are all about!

Since to my knowledge we've never seen the negotiations, I consider it probable that Tagon asked for all the standard stuff, including half down. Also, they very likely have been paid for the kidnapping - remember that large case of currency Petey handed Kerchak?

Why would Howard waste comic space depicting this every time the Toughs get a new gig? They're mercenaries, they have standard payment plans and practices, we've seen it before and we get it.

Especially when we've already seen that Tagon renegotiated the deal after knowing that Oisri was more trouble than it appeared.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-02-27

It wouldn't be a waste of comic time, or comic space. I'd rather see Tagon arguing back and forth with Gus over money than watch Schlock commit suicide in the dumbest possible way, have this event be completely nullified with the production of a clone (whose origin is still completely murky, by the way), and in the process miss SIX COMIC DAYS of headless zombie action

And it wouldn't have to be depicted every time, but since being mercenaries is their JOB, and they may not necessarily live to get paid, showing them talking about payment every so often is not that unreasonable. Especially since it's their first proper gig in god knows when.

_________________
"You think you know munitions? Darling you don’t know jack. What do you know about micro-missiles and nerve disruptors? What do you know of micro-janglers and variable grenades? Have you ever seen an e-dust commando? No? Well come talk to me when you earn your claws. It’s a big universe out there and most of it is trying to kill you already."

'Big' Kat Mikkelson to John. J. Johnson on his first day at boot camp.