Atlantis: Ghost in the Machine

[Frustration]

The problem is that it's possible to synthetically generate 'souls'.

[Swiftbow]

The problem is that it's possible to synthetically generate 'souls'.

Is it? When has that happened in Stargate?

[Druplesnubb]

When I watched this episode my impression was that Weir didn't know where the portal led and the Atlantis team tricked her, was that wrong?

[TGLS]

Well I got the impression she used the last of her strength to tell the other replicator that it was safe, so...

[Frustration]

Is it? When has that happened in Stargate?

When the Ancients uplifted/designed humanity, and every time a human being has developed since then.

[Frustration]

The implication that Weir deliberately acted as a 'Judas goat' to lead the Replicators to their doom was pretty clear... and in the process, demonstrated that she truly was Weir, at least to the degree that she was willing to sacrifice herself to save others. Whether Replicator Weir had a 'soul' or not seems unanswerable.

[Swiftbow]

Is it? When has that happened in Stargate?

When the Ancients uplifted/designed humanity, and every time a human being has developed since then.

You're treating them too much like gods (though, to be fair, the later seasons seemed to retcon earlier stuff that made sense by making it make a lot less sense). My read was that the Dakara device was basically created after they ascended and undid the deaths caused by the massive plague... thus basically restoring the former living beings on every world that were developing naturally/evolutionarily.

That is explicitly NOT the case for the Ori, apparently... (though the humans there may just be the same species as the original Ancients and are descendants of those who didn't ascend and lost their tech to the Ori mandates).

But even if the humans ARE the creation of the Ancients, the caveat in Stargate for a soul is arguably whether the creature is naturally organic or mechanical.

The implication that Weir deliberately acted as a 'Judas goat' to lead the Replicators to their doom was pretty clear... and in the process, demonstrated that she truly was Weir, at least to the degree that she was willing to sacrifice herself to save others. Whether Replicator Weir had a 'soul' or not seems unanswerable.

I agree, but I think it was Weir's consciousness that persisted. Her human soul died with her body. Her mind lived on in Replicator form. So it's still her... just not ALL of her.

[Frustration]

That works as long as we don't ever think about what we mean by 'soul'. If this 'soul' affects the way she behaves, it's part of her mind; if the copy didn't include her soul, it follows that it didn't actually have her mind.

[Madner Kami]

You'd have to come to an agreement in regards to what a soul actually is in the first place.

[Frustration]

The term is usually semantically null. One of the reasons I like the Dresden Files is that it has 'souls' - which can be partially exchanged, created, and destroyed.