SUBJECT>Murder, Justifiable Homicide, Resurrection... with those "cans of worms" I might as well go fishing! POSTER>Koala EMAIL>turtel@juno.com DATE>Monday, 22 September 1997, at 1:30 p.m. EMAILNOTICES>no IP_ADDRESS> REMOTE_HOST: tcs-gateway2.treas.gov; REMOTE_ADDR: 204.151.246.2 PASSWORD>aa3JDg0aK0i2E PREVIOUS> NEXT> 3496 IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>


Oh boy, what do we do now?

1) We have Andrew completely shut down and mourned for dead -- but he might not really be dead. If we do bring him back, will he be the same Andrew?

Can he be brought back? As Dr.D has pointed out, as much as we want to think of our friends as human, they are still machines. Machines can be repaired, parts can be replaced, they can be restarted virtually no matter what the damage to the original components. So yes, Alpha Unit can likely be brought back. The question is how much of the data that is Andrew can be brought back? That will give us the final answer to "Can he be brought back?"

Should he be brought back? We had some difficulty explaining to the Probes why Jose would not "stop being dead." They have made the extension of logic to apply that same condition to Andrew. If we now coach them to revivify him, how do we explain the apparent contradiction without throwing their sense of self completely out the window? I hate to say it, but if we do restart Andrew, the best outcome for the other Probes would be for a complete wipe and the introduction of our newest friend, Alice.

2) We have Gail who has just litterally torn apart a cousin probe with her "bare manipulators." A pretty impressive feat, but chilling all the same.

This one is going to be tricky. Gail feels remorse over her actions. That is good and healthy to a point. We will be challenged to both support the feeling and encourage its abatement without appearing contradictory and confusing. We are going to have to teach the Probes our concept of "lawful death" and how it is wrong to kill except in defense of yourself or a companion. We will have to dance around the major loopholes, but I think we can manage it.