THE OTCA Philosophy & Ethics Thread.

[GoktimusPrime]

Well, herein lies some of the issues. Based on what evidence there is, TFs seem to have a pure form of mind/body dualism i.e. the persona and animus/anemos are totally distinct and separable from the shell.

Canonical evidence seems to point at the persona being a completely distinct and separable entity from the shell. Beast Machines shows Sparks as being independent of the shell.

But does that, or should that, work?

I don't see why not. As a machine species I suppose the Transformers' consciousnesses are essentially digital cyber entities and as such free and independent of whatever body they are inhabiting. Kinda similar to Agent Smith in the Matrix - when he crossed over into the body of a human, his mind was still completely himself.

What intriguing story possibilities could come out of, for instance, putting Megatron's mind into Ravage's body? Is it reasonable to expect that his behaviour would not change?

If it's only Megatron's Spark in Ravage's body then I'd say that there would be no real change in Megatron's persona.

Evidence does show that a persona can alter if a spark is 'contaminated' - such as with Transmetal II Dinobot.

What really goes on inside the gestalt consciousness of a combiner when combined? I'm reminded of some storytelling in Doom Patrol that took place inside Crazy Jane's mind - she suffered from multiple personalities, and had to create a framework for managing their input. The framework that worked for her was a railway network, with each persona as a station or node.

BW Megs doesn't seem to change all that much besides with G1 Megatrons' spark, the only possible instance I can think of is wasting the fusion blast on the protohuman village, which isn't in keeping with his generally practical, business-first approach. Then again, in the first episode he toys with the Axalon rather than destroy the Maximals outright, so it could go either way. It's also hard to see how Optimal Optimus changes besides the voice - anyone notice any major changes in characterisation when he's carrying Prime's spark?

No, neither character really changed (persona-wise) when holding the Sparks of their G1 namesakes. I'd say because their shells already had an occupying Spark and they were merely holding another Spark, but not allowing the other Spark to actually access their shells. It seems to be a very dangerous thing to do though.

Shell programs, on the other hand, seem to have a long-lasting effect on the personality of their 'host' (for lack of a better term). Blackarachnia retains her bad-girl attitude even after having it purged - would this suggest that shell programs alter the spark of the beings they're implanted in? Then again, Rattrap isn't exactly a saint, and he's a natural Maximal. Quickstrike isn't 'tampered with' prior to activation, yet he's a violent treacherous nutcase...hmm.

Well who knows what Blackarachnia would've been like if her Spark had never been tampered with by Tarantulas.