In this, I presume that your consciousness is presently housed in a human body. (You have my sympathies.)
If you were magically transported into time and place where bodies can be nearly anything and you could choose to inhabit practically anything you wanted, would you be:
@ElectricKeet [By synthetic-appearing with organic brain, I mean entirely rigid-frame robot body except for the brain. That way I wouldn't have to deal with any copy-and-wipe conundra.]
@ElectricKeet A synthetic body sounds pretty convenient to me from a plural perspective but I'd want to make sure we're all on the same page before making the call.
- 🦊 💭
@ElectricKeet the middle option sounds nice. i get the form(s) i desire most, combined with the option to more easily tinker with said form, or temporarily adopt a new one whenever i feel like it.
@ElectricKeet Ask again tomorrow and I'll probably have a different answer....
@Soreth @ElectricKeet Also some of our definitions of organic are... probably stretching it a bit >.>
@Doephin @ElectricKeet I just want to be able to be shaped the way I'm supposed to be, and live as long as I'm supposed to.
@Soreth @Doephin @ElectricKeet That sounds good. Like the organics from the Culture.
@ElectricKeet Yay Team Synth! =:D
I will eat and digest you all with my system of mighty organs!
@xinjinmeng @ElectricKeet NGL, disappointed there isn't an Optigan or Wurlitzer in there.
@xinjinmeng You sure have a lot of organs there!
(Polite folks don't ask which ones are factory-original.)
@ElectricKeet look, as long as I have the physical capabilities of a carefully-honed supersoldier I could be a cream tart for all I care
@ElectricKeet speaking honestly, being disconnected entirely from organic physiology would be kind of maddening. I like eating and sleeping too much. I'd need those kind of maintenance needs at least simulated.
@hystericempress That's actually gonna come up for @millimax@high.cat when she gets far enough along for the full harmonization – full transfer to her magical robot body. She technically won't need to eat or sleep... except that sleep has been such an influence on the way she thinks that she'll still want at least four hours of "sleep" at night. Plus, she wants to keep her connection to dreams.
And eating? She's kind of a foodie, so she definitely built senses of taste and smell.
@ElectricKeet See, now, 'elemental clay' is maybe technically organic but I feel like it's not what is meant by the term here.
@Austin_Dern I strongly considered an option for "Organic, but not 'life as we know it'." I definitely don't want to exclude treefolk, clay golems, living gummy candy, crystals, coherent liquids, or other fascinating sorts.
@ElectricKeet Oh, I know you didn't figure on excluding the strange-texture folks. It's just really hard to think of a good term covering that set. ... Trust my FurAffinity searches, we can't even get 'vitrifaction' to be a reliable thing.
@Austin_Dern My head coughs up "bioqueer" as an ad-hoc solution for those who want to or have already changed their substrate, but now I'm interested in what others have come up with.
@ElectricKeet Oh, I like how 'bioqueer' sounds, but I'll see if I can't think of anything worthwhile.
@ElectricKeet What's the difference between an organic brain and a synthetic one here?
@Tetra That's a really good question!
Some folks are uneasy about loading their consciousness onto a different substrate, fearing a lossy transfer or dramatic personality changes. I'll admit that I wrote the poll assuming no such changes, but different folks have different comfort levels!
@ElectricKeet Yeah, I kinda figured those would be the major concerns but you didn't specify (and I find it hard to imagine many people would be in for it if they didn't know how much of themself would make it across). I'm a fan of the old-fashioned organic aesthetic, so I guess with how the categories are it actually doesn't change my answer
@ElectricKeet Presuming that the procedure is perfect at maintaining continuity of consciousness, I would go wholly synthetic. It would be more future-proof than other methods,
It's interesting how little votes "synthetic with organic brain" has, perhaps because of the option to go full synthetic without consequence.
That said, the third option has a number of votes too, and is more about the aesthetic than composition...
Any sufficiently-advanced technology is indistinguishable from meat.
Machine. If for no other reason than being able to conveniently detatch damaged components and replace them.
@ElectricKeet Ooh, had to think about this one.
I've voted organic, but it'd depend on context.
The current direction of real tech would make me worry about a synthetic body being hackable remotely.
Otherwise, the capacity to self modify more easily is probably a winner.
Then again, with sufficiently advanced technology, why not just modify biological systems?
@fudge_the_sphinx Very real concerns! I'll admit that I was sort of brushing that aside in favor of "if all else were ideal what would you want most" but that can't avoid being informed by what's around us now – that is, the likelihood of unprincipled folks directly screwing with others' autonomy as opposed to just boxing them in via other means (we live in a society).
f*rry ideas
Some janky implementation in between 3 and 4 would be most likely, leaning towards 4.
@KinkyTurtle I think we all won!
@ElectricKeet Oh man, I wish I could vote multiple choice! I'd be either organic-by-choice, or synthetic-appearing with organic brain.