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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
So, let’s discuss the ethical issues that were addressed in this episode of Black Mirror. When I first realized what Robert Daly had done to the people in his office, I was honestly #horrified; just the idea of having my life stolen from me, forced to be a #slave to a mad man - or, erm, “an asshole God” - who could, with the snap of his fingers, suffocate me or turn me into a hideous creature. And then, there is the added fact that I’d also know that this version of me wasn’t the *real* me; that, while I did “exist” within the game, I also existed in the outside world too.
And that leads me to the topic of this discussion - what is life? It’s clear that the denizens of this virtual world are carbon - or digital - copies of their real life counterparts; but, at the end of the day, they’re not “real,” at least not in any lawful sense. Even though they have all the same memories as their fleshy doubles, their existence is not held in the same regard. Daly can do as he wishes with these individuals and, even if he were caught, I can’t imagine anyone would really think twice about it. After all, they’re just 1’s and 0’s in a computers’ software. Yes, I imagine Daly could get in some trouble for stealing their DNA; but how does being accused with that crime compare to kidnapping, torture, and murder - all of which are crimes that he committed within the simulation.
It’s really difficult to determine how one would go about punishing this sort of crime because, if you were to prosecute him, wouldn’t that also mean you could prosecute anyone who’s ever played GTA? Or Call of Duty? How might one differentiate between the life of one sequence of code and another? How would you?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! I would love to have a discussion about it with anyone’s who interested.
Two more things I want to add are, 1.) I couldn’t help but think of the #Futurama episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” while watching this and 2.) Jessee Plemons was looking a lot like Matt Damon in this episode
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