What if someone created a human being in your image?
Everything in this apparatus of flesh, down to every last cell including your brain with all your memories
is absolutely identical to you.
It looks like you, it behaves like you, it thinks like you.
Soma is the new survival horror game by Frictional Games, the makers of Amnesia: The Dark Descent,
in which they already demonstrated their ability to craft an immersive horror experience that makes you shiver in anxiety and terror.
And in terms of games mechanics, Soma is a very similar journey in which you explore
dark, mysterious and claustrophobic hallways of a deep sea science station that came undone,
unable to defend yourself against monsters that are out to kill you.
So your weapon of choice is stealth.
If this type of heartbeat-raising hide and seek is what you're looking for, the game delivers as expected.
But, just like an outstanding horror movie is more than an orchestration of jump scares and violence
a masterful horror game shouldn't be judged on how much it startles and scares you
but on what the game can offer you below this layer of discomfort.
It should give you something that makes you think, that lingers in your mind
and that may even make you challenge your fundamental ways of thinking.
It may confront you with the pain of losing someone you love,
it can make you delve into the shadows of your psychic apparatus,
the parts of you that you'd never be able to explore in your everyday life.
Or, in the case of Soma, it can make you question your very existence.
Because what you probably didn't know is that Soma is a game about zombies.
No, not the John Romero, walking corpse, undead, shoot-me-in-the-head type zombie!
but the so-called Philosophical Zombie.
So, in case you're still confused by the title, let me explain.
If I asked you "What is consciousness?" you'd probably know exactly what I'm referring to.
The fact that you are, that you see, feel and actively experience your existence
and that your body is not just an elaborate machine, but that you, your self, your soul is in there.
That you exist.
You see, no matter how one attempts to describe it, it's either opinionated and emotionally biased beating around the bush
or the description is scientifically ambiguous
- since it always equally describes for example a machine with comparable cognitive, sensory and linguistic capabilities.
There are many words and interpretations to describe it:
But there is no empirically profound definition of it, no scientific way to discover,
measure or even prove its existence in the first place since self awareness is an entirely subjective phenomenon.
The only way you know it exists is because you experience your own self right this very moment.
But there is neither a way for you to irrefutably prove that you are self aware,
nor to tell if anyone around you is, or is not, self aware other than through verbal communication.
Sure, you can vehemently affirm that your ego is in there
but so could a machine that is simply programmed to believe that it is self aware.
The philosophical zombie is a thought experiment, it's a hypothetical human being that is not self aware
but because we lack a conclusive way to tell the existence of a conscience in a being, or the lack thereof,
it would be impossible to tell this person apart from another person that IS self aware
and even from you.
Because you as well as the philosophical zombie would both be convinced that you are in fact sentient.
From an analytical standpoint, this thought experiment is very similar to Schrödinger's cat
where the name-giving cat is hypothetically put in a sealed box and that would be inevitably killed by a mechanism in case the box is opened.
The logical conclusion to this is that, from an observer's standpoint, as soon as the box is closed
the cat is logically dead and alive at the same time.
Both statements are, according to the rules of applied logic, equally true.
And in the same way the philosophical zombie is both sentient and not sentient at the same time.
And that's not like a 50:50 thing. Both assertions are logically equally 100% correct.
Which means that practically every person you know is a philosophical zombie.
And also not.
Nnnnnice!
Soma employs these philosophical questions and conflicts as the foundation for the mystery the player uncovers over the course of the game.
And where The Swapper, for example, just briefly touches upon this topic
and The Talos Principle often makes the impression of a pretentious first semester philosophy lecture,
Soma plants the seed for fundamental questions in your head and lets your thoughts grow organically
just giving you a push in the right, or rather in a new, direction from time to time
because it tactfully refrains from presumptuously drawing conclusions for the player
and doesn't patronise you with an arbitrary sense of right or wrong.
It uses the inherent ambiguity of the topic as a narrative driving force and lets the player explore
fundamental questions surrounding the self and the moral implications they arise.
In Soma, the protagonist finds himself in an underwater research complex under unexplainable circumstances
and not soon after that he comes across machines that behave a lot like humans
They talk, gesture and communicate like humans, they believe that they are human
and they even seem to experience feelings like human beings.
"What are you?"
"Are you blind?
It's me, Carl! Carl Semken!!"
As we find out eventually, the scientists of Pathos-II have discovered a way to make something like
a momentary synaptic snapshot of the human brain and transfer this mind-scan data into a neurologically compatible machine.
Such a robot, controlled by a copied persona, still believes it IS the person it was during the scan,
answers every question like his mind patron would, behaves in exactly the same way
and even shares all of his or her memories, preconceptions and biases.
Yet, instinctively we'd assume that it doesn't experience life as we do
because it's just a machine after all, right?
"Ah.
Well...
yeah.
Robots don't feel anything, so..."
But this intuitive judgement is based entirely on emotional bias
- our preconceived ideology about a subjective understanding of self awareness.
But as we've said, there is no cohesive scientifically conclusive definition as to what the self is
or what is required for it to originate in the first place.
So far there are only unproven theories.
According to one theory, it requires the ability to understand and utter a temporally complex language
that allows the being to develop an abstract understanding of past, present and future for self awareness to develop.
This robot, for example, clearly meets all of those criteria.
It shows a clear understanding of past events and is able to express his desire for aid in the future, just like a person would.
"Look, I'm obviously hurt. If you see anyone else around just tell them where I am."
Another theory, for instance, attests the ability to recognise oneself in a reflection as evidence for self awareness and conscience.
And again, this machine would pass that test.
- alongside with many different animals like dolphins, elephants, crows and pigs.
Or what about the Turing Test? The linguistic experiment that is supposed to tell artificial from human intelligence.
Again, Carl here would certainly pass it.
As we've said, we can neither comprehend empirically what sentience is, nor what is required for it to form.
How complex must an organism be in order to be self awareness compatible?
To allow a soul to inhabit it that spiritually exists and that turns it from a mere apparatus into a living being?
Is every person in the world self aware, or do philosophical zombies that just seem to be sentient
but are in fact nothing but machines of flesh and bones actually exist?
What about animals? Which animals are self aware and which are not? And where does it start?
What about an ant? A comparatively simple organism that we're even able to remote control with technology.
Could an ant be self aware?
Intuitively most people would answer this question with "no" but once again,
this conclusion is entirely based on a subjective understanding of a concept that we are not - or at least not yet - able to fathom.
Or what about a very complex machine?
An elaborate artificial intelligence that fulfills every one of the aforementioned criteria.
Does it develop a self and can it become a sentient being?
Or does it just believe it is and appears that way to us?
And to close the circle. What about that perfect copy of you I've mentioned in the beginning?
Is it just a soulless machine made of flesh and blood that's not distinguishable from the actual you?
- a philosophical zombie?
Or is somebody in there? Are YOU in there?
All of these questions are substantial, fascinating and even ethically important
and yet there is no cohesive answer to any of them.
It's agnostic territory, where every assumption that claims to irrefutably know something
is fundamentally flawed because of a lack of empirical evidence.
And because of that, because of let's call it the Schrödinger's Zombie,
this robot who believes it's human is in fact a self conscious entity.
Which means that the moment we pull the plug...
"Don't!"
we take the life of a sentient being.
"I need it!
Why?
I was ok. I was happy."
But at the same time, it's also nothing but a machine.
Exactly like... you!
Yes, the beautiful person in front of the screen.
You are a conscious being, inhabited by a beautiful and magnificent soul.
You're self aware and you know it -
- you think therefore you are.
But at the same time, you are also nothing but a soulless machine.
At least according to logic.
So, let me end this essay with a question,
umm, ok - two questions for you to ponder about.
If you had the chance to live the rest of your life in a simulation,
it would feel 100% authentic to you and you didn't even know you were in a simulation.
All you experience is real to you and you'd live the absolute perfect life you could ever wish for.
Would you choose the simulation?
Or would you stay with your real life?
And the follow up question:
How do you know you're not already in a simulation?
So thanks for watching Monsters of the Week!
Now it's your turn to choose where the path leads...
Until then, remember...
the truth is out there!