A friend commented on my previous entry about Life, Love, and Sex, telling me (in person) that Stargate Universe and Transhuman Fiction weren’t so much a fantasy about sex and love as it was a search for identity. After thinking about it for a day, I must conclude he is correct… to a certain extent.
Just how is a “soul” or “mind” defined? Can one remove mind from body and still retain a whole person? In a world where science has conclusively defined muscle and sense memory as real phenomena, something that is inexorably tied to our physical bodies, is it possible to actually remove the sum of our experiences from our shells and put them into someone else’s body? How can we be human anymore if we separate thought from form?
In SGU, two characters keep having flashbacks tied to a third character’s memory. The imprints of # 3’s memory is left in the stones used for this mental “magic” transfer and then contaminates the memories or dreams of the other two.
Does this particular concept denote fragility, the idea that we’re always leaving bits ourselves behind where ever we go? Does it imply strength, that we don’t need our frail physical forms in order to accomplish great things?
Certainly we have proof that the mind is a strong instrument. Look at disabled people, like Stephen Hawking, who accomplish spectacular feats despite the lack of physical input? Think about the aging baby boomer population whose wit and wisdom is not affected by aging and failing bodies. This proves that the mind is a powerful thing that can still work even when flesh fails us. But then there is senility and Alzheimer’s Syndrome which proves the mind is just as fragile as the body.
Descarte said “I think, therefore I am.” It was one of the most revolutionary statements of its time and has informed (in my opinion) the development of Western civilization as surely as the Magna Carta or the fall of the Roman Empire. But is “thinking” the end all, be all of humanity, especially when sense memory and muscle memory inform so much of our personal beliefs and actions?
And where in all this does love and sex play a part? Have these two concepts become so much a part of our identity that we can’t explore the idea of “self” without them?
My friend claims the idea of transferring minds between bodies isn’t construct of science so much as it is a construct of magic. If his contention is valid, then you tell me…
Is Transhuman Fiction a fantasy trope masquerading as science fiction or a science fiction trope disguising itself as fantasy?
