What sort of effects would death by nerve agent have on the cortical stack backup?
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Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
Wed, 2011-10-19 11:50
#1
Decimator
Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
Wed, 2011-10-19 12:04
#2
Yerameyahu
Re: Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
My guess is 'none'. The two listed in the book (Frog Bite and Nervex) appear to be paralytics, affecting motor neurons. Certainly brain damage is possible, especially if you actually survive, but I'm not sure why that would unduly affect the backups.
Wed, 2011-10-19 14:06
#3
Tyrnis
Re: Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
I'm not coming from a medical or biology background, but my understanding is that nerve agents work by preventing the proper transmission of signals by the nerves, which is what ultimately leads to respiratory failure and death. The damage is to the structure of the body, so it wouldn't have any impact at all on a backup, other than leaving them with some very unpleasant memories upon being resleeved or reinstanced as an informorph.
Wed, 2011-10-19 16:22
#4
Arenamontanus
Re: Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
Yes, I think none of the nerve agents mentioned has much effect on the backups. Typically they prevent the breakdown of neurotransmitters, leading to an overload at synapses or neuromuscular junctions that in turn stop function, leading to unconsciousness or death.
But I could imagine a subtle agent intended to create profound disturbance that might be misinterpreted by the backup system... something like BZ gas, a deliriant, but acting slowly and subtly to make the copy at the very least noisy. Likely not very common.
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Sat, 2011-10-22 03:57
#5
Jay Dugger
Re: Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
Granting BZ+, what real effect would that have? Wouldn't one just restore from a slightly earlier back-up, eliding the suspect era of chemically-induced noise?
I imagine something like this happens. Who would intentionally restore from a cortical stack back-up at the actual point of death or massive trauma?
You could make exceptions for dramatic reasons, sure.
"Sorry Mr. Jones, but we cannot legally verify your identity unless you can tell us particular details of the last five seconds of your previous morph."
"What! You said my previous morph died from having my, er...its head sawn off by a whacked-out Petal head."
"Yes, and we are very sorry. Unless you agree to restore from the very last surviving backup and describe in clear detail the sensation of having the saw part your neck's bones, we cannot provide a legally verified identity to you."
"So, ah...that would mean I'd--"
"Be an unauthorized alpha fork, yes. You'd go into off-line storage while your case went through review."
How bad do you want to live?
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Sometimes the delete key serves best.
Sat, 2011-10-22 10:54
#6
Tyrnis
Re: Effect of nerve agents on cortical stack backups
For a particularly traumatic death, you might very well choose to resleeve from a backup rather than the cortical stack, especially those in high-risk careers, where their backups are likely to be very recent, sure.
For the majority of transhumanity, though, they may only back up once or twice a year. The decision is a little different when it's a choice between losing the last six months to a year of your life or keeping it and remembering a traumatic death, too.