"And when, in the fullness of my own life, I began to wane, I realized that I must submit to the last test of godhood. I must return from death itself. Only then would I be able to meet God as an equal. Only then could I become Him. [...] I caused myself to be recorded. Written down. Transcribed. I became, in the modern parlance, information. Do you see? I carved the pattern of my life into the world, in words and images. I measured the actual activity of my brain. And I stored it. I had a ready stock of test subjects in the orphans of the Wisitithiel experiment. While I was still alive, I refined my apparatus by using it on them. I played them fragments of my life and taught them — with electric shocks and so on — to emulate me perfectly. Each of my Ruskinites is an aspect of myself..."
— Shem Shem Tsiem, Angelmaker
"Clear your mind. Listen to your breathing. The goal is to lower heart rate and blood pressure. Just relax... just be. You should sense a pulse, a repeating pressure you've never felt before at the edge of your mind. That's gen:Lock's sync signal looking for you. Give in to it, go to that sensation, reach for it. Go to the light, grab it... and then, hang on."
— Dr. Weller, gen:LOCK
Sam Starfall: Stay back. You're not cutting off my head!
Dvorak: But why not? We made a copy of you. Doesn't that make you less deceased?
Sam: That's just a hologram. But even if it was a perfect copy, it doesn't change the fact that I, personally, would be dead.
Dvorak: Thank you. Now you know how we feel about back ups.
Dvorak: But why not? We made a copy of you. Doesn't that make you less deceased?
Sam: That's just a hologram. But even if it was a perfect copy, it doesn't change the fact that I, personally, would be dead.
Dvorak: Thank you. Now you know how we feel about back ups.
Arnim Zola: Rogers, Steven; born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna; born 1984.
Black Widow: It's some kind of recording.
Zola: I am not a recording, fräulein, I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am.
Black Widow: You know this thing?
Captain America: Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years.
Zola: First correction: I am Swiss. Second: look around you. I have never been more alive! In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however; that was worth saving. On 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain.
Black Widow: It's some kind of recording.
Zola: I am not a recording, fräulein, I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am.
Black Widow: You know this thing?
Captain America: Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years.
Zola: First correction: I am Swiss. Second: look around you. I have never been more alive! In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however; that was worth saving. On 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain.
"I should have stopped. But the Operator slept and I cycled on and on and on. I began to think that a Cephalon cannot be made. They are found, like pearls, torn from muscle. Polished, and then set in chains."
— Cephalon Ordis, Warframe
"Imagine that a future version of me, perhaps not so far away, offers you the deal of a lifetime. I can replace your brain with a machine that is its equal in every way, so that from the outside, nobody could tell the difference. This new machine has many advantages: It is immune to decay, and perhaps it will allow you to live forever. But there's a catch. Since even future-me is not sure how real brains give rise to consciousness, I can't guarantee that you will have any conscious experiences at all, should you take this offer. Maybe you will, if consciousness depends only on functional capacity, on the power and complexity of the brain's circuitry. But maybe you won't, if consciousness depends on a specific biological material — neurons, for example. Of course, since your machine-brain leads to identical behavior in every way, when I ask new-you whether you are conscious, new-you will say yes. But what if, despite this answer, life — or you — is no longer in the first person? I suspect you wouldn't take the deal. Without consciousness, it may hardly matter whether you live for another 5 years or another 500. In all that time, there would be nothing it would be like to be you."
Universal Helper: My name's Adam Golaski. That's what you wanted, right? My name? What's your... designation?
Adam Golaski: Chief engineer Adam Golaski.
Universal Helper: [beat] This is some sort of joke, right? Some sort of jape? I'm not your man for this kind of game.
Adam Golaski: Funny, I was just about to say the same thing.
Universal Helper: So... I'm supposed to believe that you're me? No. When's my birthday. You know what? When's my daughter's birthday?
Adam Golaski: October 16th. Wait, who the fuck are you to ask about my daughter?!
Universal Helper: Adam Golaski!
Adam Golaski: Adam Golaski the busted tape deck. How 'bout this? Why don't you tell me something?
Universal Helper: Oh, this ought to be a prize.
Adam Golaski: What were dad's last words?
Universal Helper: You serious? You're bringing up my father's death right now? That's off the rails, man.
Adam Golaski: Nobody knows about this. That it even happened. And this is something you can't just pull from the frame.
Universal Helper: [beat] "Don't let her go." He's laying there, dying. And the last thing he says to me — his last goddamn breath — he tells me to hang onto my wife.
Adam Golaski: [speaking to Imogen Reed, visibly disturbed] Do you think maybe we can do this another time?
Adam Golaski: Chief engineer Adam Golaski.
Universal Helper: [beat] This is some sort of joke, right? Some sort of jape? I'm not your man for this kind of game.
Adam Golaski: Funny, I was just about to say the same thing.
Universal Helper: So... I'm supposed to believe that you're me? No. When's my birthday. You know what? When's my daughter's birthday?
Adam Golaski: October 16th. Wait, who the fuck are you to ask about my daughter?!
Universal Helper: Adam Golaski!
Adam Golaski: Adam Golaski the busted tape deck. How 'bout this? Why don't you tell me something?
Universal Helper: Oh, this ought to be a prize.
Adam Golaski: What were dad's last words?
Universal Helper: You serious? You're bringing up my father's death right now? That's off the rails, man.
Adam Golaski: Nobody knows about this. That it even happened. And this is something you can't just pull from the frame.
Universal Helper: [beat] "Don't let her go." He's laying there, dying. And the last thing he says to me — his last goddamn breath — he tells me to hang onto my wife.
Adam Golaski: [speaking to Imogen Reed, visibly disturbed] Do you think maybe we can do this another time?
— SOMA
Antimony: Kat, did you upload your mind to your computer?
Kat: No! Nothing as corny as that!
Kat: No! Nothing as corny as that!
