My first thought was indeed Blinding Lights.

Oh come on, really? Is the problem ultrarich people? Or is the problem poor people who won’t eat those ultrarich people?

Productive is not what I’d call what I do but anyway: I don’t follow things that make me miserable or even just “people”. My feeds are full of all kinds of fun stuff, like my fandoms or science or art. So I don’t ever “doom scroll”, really, but read about what other people thought about that newest episode or some new thought they had about an ancient episode or general fan squealing about a ship or the newest weird findings about spinosaurus or ‘look at these new photos Perseverance has taken’ or ‘look at this detail in this awesome painting’ or ‘this is how to improve this aspect in your drawings’.

Yes I am on tumblr. Yes I am on tumblr too much.

The only opinion that matters here is your partner’s.

Yep.

Those evil, evil bastards did not think you were important enough to waste time writing a reply. Shame on them. Shame I say.

This was sarcasm, btw. Get over yourself.

yes but porn

Sharing contact information directly phone to phone.

Lock screen widgets, giving me information at an actual glance without the risk of getting sucked into other random bullshit.

I had this conversation right here earlier. There is no “splitting”, it’s a copy. Like copying a file to two different harddrives and deleting the file in the “original” path. Neither of them is more real than the other.

You seem to imply that’s because it’s a “different” body made of different atoms. The atoms in our bodies are constantly exchanged already, we’re constantly recreating our bodies even without transporting. I don’t think that’s any different.

I’ve been on the internet for too long, so based on experience I start vaguely suspecting confrontation in any exchange longer than two comments :)

The Riker problem is of course interesting and I don’t know what I’d do in that situation (other than make out - just like Will and Tom did) or how I think I/we would decide who gets to be the “real one”, for lack of a better term. I’m very glad I won’t ever have to figure that out. But yes, that’s probably what my view implies: there’d be two of “me”, exact copies. Like when I copy a file to two different hard drives and then delete the source. There’d be no “real” one, they’re both the same file, just in different places.

I’ll have to think about your view because, I have to admit, I’m having trouble really seeing it and that’s annoying me. It’s just too different from how I think, I suppose. Thank you for giving me some food for thought then :)

It’s a copied personality. The same brain structures recreated in two identical bodies. Is that an issue?

I don’t know. From my understanding, Thomas Riker is indeed the same person as William - in the very first instance after transporting. After that, their experiences are different and their consciousnesses diverge to form different people. I’m not the same person I was two seconds ago, even without transporting, while sitting motionless in my chair.

Split personalities, btw, would mean two personalities in the same brain, that’s not what’s happening here.

In death, my consciousness stops. That’s not the case here.

No afterlife, no souls - though I can see how it would be tricky for a believer. But I can’t see teleporting as “ceasing to exist”, simply because I consider my “self” and my consciousness to be identical to the structures in my brain. There is nothing else but the atoms that have come together in the specific combination to form my body, and those atoms are constantly being replaced by other atoms anyway. When using a transporter, the current combination of atoms is simply recreated at the other end to seamlessly continue its function and processes (assuming perfect copies of course), thus effectively “transporting” my consciousness.

But what difference does that make? I wouldn’t even notice.

Your consciousness ceases to exist,

Depends on what we define as “consciousness”. If it’s just what my brain does, it doesn’t cease to exist at all because it’s rebuild in the clone. If it’s a soul, I don’t know, that’s above my paygrade.

I’m assuming it’s painless and that my clone would have my memories. That’s still “me”. “I” am the sum of the structures in my brain and what my brain does with it.

I’ve always had a hard time understanding what’s so bad about the person who arrives being a clone, never saw the downside. Yes, I 'd definitely use it. One of the biggest hurdles in my everyday life is the “going there”. When I was still working, the one thing I always complained about and what ruined my every morning was having to go there and return after. If I’d had the option to instantly teleport to work, I would have loved every day because I loved my work and I wanted to be there. Now that I’m disabled, I regularly have to cancel stuff like doctor’s appointments last minute because my chronic exhaustion is acting up and I physically can’t move my body there.

(If teleporting isn’t available, I’d settle for a ship’s computer core as a PDA)

Sure. If they weren’t as rich, the money would be elsewhere where it’s actually needed. I’m envious of the fact that they don’t have to spend even a second thinking about buying a new house while I can’t afford new shoes. I’d like to be able to buy new shoes when I need them because mine are broken without having to think about it, please and thank you.