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	Re: Ignorant or calculating cyborg?
	Posted By: Anaphiel	Date: 5/25/01 7:46 a.m.
	In Response To: Re: Ignorant or calculating cyborg? (Mark Levin) : From a practical point of view, I think one would know if one was a cyborg : after a few minutes of self-examination, but if we restrict ourselves to : evidence in the game, I don't think the Marine knows. In the Marathon 1 : manual, the description reads "It's funny, but you've always been the : colony's trouble shooter. You're bigger and stronger, and a better : shot." If we assume that "it's funny" applies to the whole : passage, then the Marine has no special explanation for his abilities, he : thinks he's just that damn good. Regarding self-examination: if all of the cyborg's enhancements were internal (reinforced bones, enhanced muscles, modified organs, etc.), you would likely never notice unless you dould remember how you felt prior to your enhancement. After all, you have nothing to compare to. For example, I have bad knees. I know this because they used to be good, and now they're bad. If they'd always been bad, I would just think that this is what all knees are like. I have two screws in my upper arm from a fracture when I was a kid. I never notice them. If they were removed I would likely notice the difference, but after a few years this "different" state would become the norm again. Without a clear memory of his unenhanced existance, and with no obvious/external enhancements, the marine might never know he was more than human. : Would the Marine deduce anything from his own abilities in the game, such as : health recharging and being resurrected from pattern buffers? Not if he : attributes them all to the battlesuit he wears. And there's nothing he : does that couldn't be done by equipment that would could be used by any : human. I doubt it. The "health recharging" is just recharging the shields on the battle armor, and I would assume that the pattern buffers are placed for the use of the crew of the Marathon, not wandering Mjolnir cyborgs. The only thing that might cause some nagging concern might be the ability to single-handedly slaughter hole armies of aliens, but it would take a whole lot of soul-searching to go from "I seem to be really good at killing these guys" to "gee, I guess I'm not human". I would probably stop somewhere around "these guys are a bunch of wimps, good thing they can't aim". : Then there are all the places in the game where the AIs refer to the Marine : (to his face) as non-human. Would this be enough to convince him? I doubt : it, the AIs are pretty crazy in the first place, and it's very hard to : convince a human that he is not a human after all on the strength of words : alone. Great points. Would you really believe Durandal if he told you you were a cyborg? If all of the marine's memories are of a human life, nothing would convince him otherwise. Even if you could show incontrovertible scientific evidence, emotionally he would struggle against it and would likely never accept it. See Rachel in Blade Runner, Micky Rourke in Angel Heart (ok, in Angel Heart Mickey Rourke was dead, not a cyborg, but he acts like a robot, so the theory applies) : I think that he would realize he is more than human in the middle of Marathon : Infinity, as he begins to jump the timelines and eventually figures out : that not only is he doing these jumps himself but he can control them (he : ends up in the right timeline at the end, or at least a good one, which : was his goal). Hmmm. Proof that something weird is going on, but still not proof that the Marine has anything to do with it. Does the Marine control the timelines directly, or is he simply stuck bouncing back and forth until in one he completes the objective?

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Replies:

	Ignorant or calculating cyborg?	Retarted Monkey Lover	5/24/01 10:44 p.m.
	Re: Ignorant or calculating cyborg?	Mark Levin	5/25/01 6:14 a.m.
	Re: Ignorant or calculating cyborg?	Anaphiel	5/25/01 7:46 a.m.
	Re: Ignorant or calculating cyborg?	archon	5/25/01 9:53 a.m.

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