They are "puppets", but what does that mean? Presumably, that they are in on form or another, remote controlled, fully or partially, by another entity.
But here's the thing: there are very many, and they are controlled 24/7 and in much greater detail than a human playing a role. Each one requires it's own chunk of substrate - be it actual brain tissue, a computer, some kind of dream essence, magic, or anything else - dedicated to it. Further, even if the hardware is the same the models of their mind must be kept separate in order to stay in character, as you always have to do when roleplaying multiple characters. The model of each mind still needs to be imagined to think that whatever pain, joy, loyalties and choices it makes are real, and the computation of this unavoidably subsumes a computation of those things themselves.
The bottom line is: these are people, their minds don't reside in their body, but even if neither they nor the puppeteer nor anyone else but you realize this, it is fact: The only way to give an illusion of personhood this good, one that have held up for years, is to create what is for moral purposes an ACTUAL person. Intentionally or not.
A person are, at the very core, an idea, information. There is no such thing as an illusion of information, you cannot name an image of a text without it containing the actual text, there's just the very same information presented through a different substrate. Substrate has no bearing on morality.
Your past self may even believe what she is saying, and the puppet might be pulling a bluff, but that doesn't matter. You are Sophia, and you name is not a coincidence. A truth may be unintentional from someone trying to lie, and the nature of progress is that you are wiser than your own past.
Ultimately, it is a question of morality. Is moral agency being an independent structure made from carbon, or the ability to think and feel?
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Topic: Do not trust the Rainbow Snail (Updated 2/09/11) (Read 100588 times)