The Sixth Day

I finished watching The Sixth Day for the first time and, although it is a typical action movie with odd discrepancies, such as villains who act out of character without lead up, it does bring up some interesting questions regarding cloning with memories transplanted from the original body¹. On one hand there is the difference in becoming aware as a clone in a natural setting for that person, as Schwarzenegger did in a cab heading to complete an errand, or becoming aware on the lab table, as with the henchmen agents in the movie. The Sixth Day presents the awareness of being a clone as an acceptance of the body and its unique wiring being replaceable hardware, and those people develop a cold detachment normally associated with movie characters who are immortal and have been alive a long time. The question is what it means to be human in this situation, and comes to front when the main villain, after being shot and awakening his "memory-up-to-the-minute" clone, uncharacteristically and morally questions the clone for taking his clothes while he is still alive. Additionally, is there a difference between the cloning of a human using meat and bone and creating a digital copy of their mind?² As long as there is only one of a person, whether it be digital or mechanical or in the flesh, perhaps that is acceptable, and only when there is an increase in the population but not in individuals does our primal hair raise.

¹ “Original” memories being suspect not just because they are copied and placed in the identical body, but because the act of recalling a memory can alter it, meaning as the clone and original remember the same memory, they should begin to deviate and become somewhat distinct from each other regarding the past.

² I'm meaning here a functioning copy of the mind as opposed to a flat record of all memories then placed into a cloned body, which in the movie acts as the "on switch" for awakening.

Kind of Blue

Hitorijime My Hero

Hitorijime My Hero

The Bends

Nuno Serrão - Enveloped By Shades of Green

Hitorijime My Hero

Feeling For Something Lost

That feeling of being lost - as in becoming conscious of a stretch of road on which all prior drives were experienced unconsciously - of becoming aware of your lack of awareness.

Everyone Knows This is Nowhere

America Seen series - Yu-Chen Chiu

Hitorijime My Hero

Hitorijime My Hero

Hitorijime My Hero

Money, And the Art of Evil

Brief thought--

Wealth has been regarded suspiciously; it can lead to loose morals and laziness. Those who don't have wealth may desire it and wish for some sort of redistribution; and once in a place where they do have it, they hold onto it more tightly. The new have-nots consider this greed.

In popular media, the villain of a series often has wealth one way or another. It may be a "Hollywood" flourish that the only evil worth a heroes efforts (or their own wealth) is one with a hefty price tag. This image of a cynic with money to spare may be partly to blame for the general mistrust of those who have.

Notes from Earth

Perhaps the human species is experiencing a combination of increased entropy and genetic fatigue. Eyes covered and candle held outstretched, waiting for the final breath to land.

Eden of the East

Sleeping In

That Dream Again

Seth Smith

Napping Princess

Napping Princess

"The living look upon the corpse with their eyesight,
But without eyesight lingers a different living
and looks curiously on the corpse."
- Whitman, To Think of Time

Golden Boy

Golden Boy

Golden Boy

Golden Boy

Sleeping In