{"id":989,"date":"2025-11-30T21:19:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/?p=989"},"modified":"2025-11-30T21:28:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T04:28:04","slug":"when-i-die-please-let-me-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/archives\/989","title":{"rendered":"When I Die, Please Let Me Die."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spoilers for the show Pantheon and Upload<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Allie Demetrick’s blog post titled, \u201c Pantheon: Authenticity, Perception, and Embodiment<\/a>\u201d there is an exploration of definitions and potential human authenticity of digitally uploaded consciousness. In this critical response post, I will be comparing Allie\u2019s insights of the show Pantheon <\/em>with various plot points from the show Upload. <\/em>Thus, ultimately deriving a potential answer to Allie\u2019s question of \u201cif our consciousness is not attached to the material, what still matters?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Amazon Prime series, Upload<\/em>, similarly to Pantheon,<\/em> explores the implications of a digital afterlife, where human consciousness can be uploaded to a technological interface to elongate their life on Earth. Allie analyzed Walter Benjamin\u2019s idea of aura and mechanical reproduction of which to upload someone to the digital afterlife, their physical body is destroyed. Thus, reproducing the human and destroying its natural aura. This manipulation of the natural to live in a simulated life, parallel to reality, is by definition means to live inauthentically. Thus, resulting in the conclusion that these \u201cuploads\u201d are not real, they are artificial experiences, mutable, and simulated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evidence of the extreme mutability of these digitized consciousnesses is the malleability of time, as described in Allie\u2019s analysis. As George Orwell states in his book 1984<\/em>, “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”  In Pantheon<\/em>, Allie\u2019s blog post describes time as flexible, where the perception of time can be manipulated. Digital humans can experience a year in a day or a day in a year. These false perceptions of time are evidence that these uploads have lost a stable perception of reality, thus having an artificial perception. The capitalization of time represents an extreme control of power over these digital people. This results in a complete loss of agency over the perceptions of the Patheon <\/em>uploads\u2019 environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Upload,<\/em> characters have a somewhat static purview of time. This point is emphasized by the lack of evolution the characters face. For example, a plot point in Upload<\/em> was about a 10 year old boy, who had died and was uploaded. The boy\u2019s parents decided to never upgrade the image of his body thus keeping his physical appearance as a 10 year old. In the show he had been uploaded for eight years, meaning his mental age was eighteen. The boy grew frustrated over his lack of growth and seeing his peers who were still alive pass him by affecting his mental health. This lack of autonomy over one’s own body resembles the character Claudia from the book Interview with a Vampire<\/em>; an adult woman trapped in the body of a five year old. These characters grew distressed, angry, and discouraged about living, because there was no guaranteed end to their suffering or variety to their lives. There was no foreseeable change that they would experience physically and were surrounded by people who were growing older. Thus, the uploads were essentially objectified, expected to stay as they are. This led the capitalists of the series to strategize that these digital consciousnesses are just objects that can be used for their own gain, digital slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though I established that these digital uploads were not human because they lacked agency and evolution, I did not argue that they were not conscious. These digital consciousness have thoughts, and feelings that can develop relationships because they have the context and memory to grow them. This is one of the only real human characteristics these digital beings have. It is what makes people vulnerable to attachment to a simulated version of their loved one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the show Upload,<\/em> there was an evolution of relationships, Nathan Brown (the main character of Upload)<\/em> experienced a blossoming love story with a woman who was alive, Nora. Yet, his relationship was only tested when there was a risk of it being lost. Nathan\u2019s consciousness was almost erased on several occasions. After each close-call or rebooted memory, Nathan always chose to love his partner, Nora, again. Xelena Ilon brought up a great quote in her final presentation that contributes to a definition of AI and consciousness: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what AI can\u2019t yet offer: the friction that fuels growth, the silence that begs understanding, the feeling of being loved by someone who could walk away, but doesn\u2019t because they choose you day in and day out.\u201d – Cathy Hackl <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan not only fought for Nora when he was at risk of being lost, Nora fought for him. Their relationship was not a confirmation of Nora\u2019s being or opinions, the couple grew to understand each other and truly love each other. Thus differentiating Nathan from AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if these digital consciousnesses are not human, but not really generated AI, what are they? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, what does it mean to be a digital conscientiousness, are we still that person even if we are digitized? The aspect that makes a human conscious, human, is the mortality of consciousness. Mortality is what makes people human. A looming presence of death makes people want to live. In digital spaces that is not an expectation that is guaranteed. If one\u2019s consciousness is digitized it is presumed that it will be there forever, or at least well beyond their kin\u2019s lives. It is not until the digital landscape is at risk, that there is realization of mortality again. In conclusion, it is not the immateriality, necessarily, that makes a human experience not authentic, it is if there is a  looming sense of death or a complete agency of one\u2019s perception of their environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>. Penguin Classics, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rice, Anne. Interview With the Vampire.<\/em> Ballantine Books, 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spoilers for the show Pantheon and Upload Throughout Allie Demetrick’s blog post titled, \u201c Pantheon: Authenticity, Perception, and Embodiment\u201d there is an exploration of definitions and potential human authenticity of digitally uploaded consciousness. In this critical response post, I will be comparing Allie\u2019s insights of the show Pantheon with various plot points from the show … Continue reading When I Die, Please Let Me Die.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103005,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[201,170,202,203],"class_list":["post-989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critical-response","tag-consciousness","tag-critical-response","tag-digital-afterlife","tag-mortality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mdia300\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}