MovieChat Forums > Black Mirror (2011) Discussion > San Junipero makes no sense. Maybe when ...

San Junipero makes no sense. Maybe when they are in the trial run

posted 8 years ago by Badass_123
13 replies | jump to latest

their mind connects to the artificial universe and they experience what's going on there. But after they die, their physical brain is dead. That doesn't go into the artificial universe. So instead a copy of their brain is running inside the artificial universe. But that's not the real person anymore, it's just a copy in software. Heck, you could put 50 different copies of the same mind in there, and it still won't be the physical person. That person is dead. If they had a "soul", their soul isn't in the artificial universe.

[–] moustachegai 8 years ago

When we are dead, we are dead. Our brain degrades, and our memories and thoughts are actually electrical signals that then vanish.

So yes by that point of view it is a copy of their signals in a system. But the difference is it benefits other people.

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

Yeah, the people maintaining the server.
Nice pay being a techie.

85% of the people in there were "dead", so they were just software.
15% were live humans doing a trial run.

[–] moustachegai 8 years ago

I can see this as our future as a species. Or grave rather.

[–] Retrono 8 years ago

Their minds actually are transferred to San Junipero, from inside one physical form (the brain) into another (computer hard drive). It's more like "cut and paste" rather than "copy". You my not believe it's possible, but that's what happens in the story. It's sci-fi.

[–] moustachegai 8 years ago

In computing 'copy and paste' is actually 'copy to temp cache, paste to new location, delete original file, delete temp cache'. Or rather, not actually delete at all waiting for new files to over-write the data block.

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

Of course it's a copy. You can make as many copies of yourself as you want in San Junipero. So if someone was a narcissist, they could have 10 of themselves in there, and just have an orgy with themselves 24/7/365.

Meanwhile the original person is actually still dead.

[–] royaltyclub 8 years ago

Remember she said they're uploading their minds to the cloud

[–] starseed062 8 years ago

Even if it's not really real after your dead, because it feels so real while you're still alive, it can help to provide peace of mind. Like, if you know that someday you might dead a dead loved one again, you won't have to be so grieved after they're gone. And also, if you're really anxious and worried about dying, you can have peace of mind knowing this is where you're going to be. Instead of dying into the unknown.

It kind of reminds me of the paintings in the Harry Potter world. Sure, Dumbledore is dead, and his real soul goes off behind the veil. But a part of him is still there and can provide guidance and comfort to those still alive.

[–] Nitrogliserin 8 years ago

Yorkie confirmed it's real and feels real after she passed away. So from a sci-fi aspect you feel and live for real in SJ. You are not an A.I in a game for the maintenance only.

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

Yeah, a piece of code said "this feels real".
Just like that previous sentence.
But the first sentence isn't alive, it's only words on a screen.

[–] jpowell180 8 years ago

Agreed.
When they "downloaded" the mind, they downloaded an emulation of their personality, along with their memories; had they not injected the characters with the euthanasia poison (which we clearly see as some white stuff running through the IV), the flesh and blood person would still have remained alive, with their mind intact and functioning.

Had they then gone to San Junipero, they could have met with the copy of their mind - it may have acted the same, remembered the same things, and emulated self-awareness, but it would still remain a copy, however sophisticated.

So it's not "copy and paste", it's "copy and suicide"; the sight of the white stuff running up the IV line to kill them creeped me the hell out, and makes me think that someone out there wants to plant a positive image in people's minds about euthanasia.

[–] verycoolnin 8 years ago

Many people with terminal forms of cancer would wish for the sweet release of death than keep on living in unbearable pain.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 8 years ago

Eternal, unanswerable questions. What is consciousness? What is the soul? Are they one and the same, or are they separate and distinct?

If a copy doesn't know it's a copy, and everything it experiences, including the full range of human emotions, feels like life, does it have a soul?

Is there such a thing as a soul? If not, does it matter whether a consciousness is live or Memorex?

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

This all is, in good part, what the episode is about. It is far from merely a simple love story. The implications are potentially deeply disturbing.

I thought it was a wise choice to avoid making this philosophical subtext into text. (Much. It does do that a little bit.) The viewer is left to ponder the matter afterward and come to one's own conclusions. We may wind up with very, very different interpretations of what ultimately happened there, or didn't happen. Not all of those interpretations are going to conclude that it was, in truth, a happy ending.

"Here, with a special report, is a midget in a bikini."