@Actual Jove While the the Jovian Republic clearly understand the need for securing themselves against potential TITAN intrusion, they fail to grasp the larger picture. While a population largely consisting of flats with limited mesh access is harder to corrupt, each individual's potential is then limited. Upgraded morphs can offer more of a threat to TITANs, as was seen in the last battles of the Fall on Earth.

Speaking as some one who was a Jovian citizen until a couple of weeks ago, I hope I can lend a bit of insight into the Jovian experience with augmentations. Firstly, the Republic is not nearly as culturally homogeneous as outsiders would like to think. Yeah bio and techno conservatism are the orders of the day, and resleeving is very restricted, both officially and culturally, but augmentations aren't forbidden. Certain augmentations are contraband, or at least require special licensing (cortical stacks being the big ones there) but there are factions, like the Hawks, who openly push for more aggressive technological adoption. I'm not going to defend some of the Republic's public policies, but seeing as what happened to earth, can you really expect the conservative minded not to be a bit concerned about adopting radical and (arguably) poorly tested technologies that can fundamentally change a person's sense of self. In short, the Jovian Republic isn't anti-augmentation, it's more anti-resleeving. The general belief is that people are who they are born and raised as and body, mind and, if you believe in it, soul. Switching to a body that is different than the one you are born in thus makes you a different person, and changing into a body that isn't human makes you no longer human. Which raises questions of if you aren't the same person or even the same species, then what exactly are you? Mix that with conservative minded paranoia and a religious culture and you get a nation of people who see transhumanity as the "them" in the old "us vs. them" mindset.

Sam here. I might actually be able to answer that last one. I'm not big on the Jovian, myself, But being A biocon, I may know a little bit of the ideas and memes here. Firstly, Who says your finding a new shell for your soul? The mind isn't necessarily the soul, Religiously speaking, so your soul might be in your old morph, for example. (or already off to wherever souls go in your religion after death, I guess.) And even if the mind *Is* the soul, the mind in a new shell is a copy, Irregardless of how good a copy it is, and the original mind is essentially wiped out, assuming a re-sleeving, so under the Religous Biocon view, your not the same person, your just a very accurate copy who considers yourself the original.(which would be why the Jovians and some other biocon don't resleeve. if they can help it. They consider it suicide so a copy can inherit everything of Theirs, while in a better/diffrent body.) Personally, I follow a more flexible line of thought, Theologically, but Even i'm not convinced that those are not issues. (Im more christian gnostic then Catholic though.) plus, there is just something.. Creepy about the idea that your mind could become compromised subtly while being converted to data, making the ego *less you* even without bringing souls into the debate, but thats getting off track from your question a fair bit.

I had to check the mesh for this "Bilbo" character. I was never one for fantasy stories. Sticking with your example, Bilbo changed over time through his experiences, overcoming challenges and interactions with others. This form of change or, perhaps more appropriately, growth is qualitatively different from what resleeving does to a transhuman. Yes, Bilbo could be considered to be different from what he was prior to setting out on his quest. He was however still the same being. The same body, the same mind, the same continuity of experience. When you resleeve, there is a break in that continuity. Your memories, personality, and mannerisms are copied onto a backup. You could then keep living your life gathering new experiences, growing into a "different person". If you were to meet an unexpected end, your insurance provider would copy that saved data onto a new brain in a new body. All that experience you had since your backup would be gone. Is this back-up-you the same person that died unexpectedly? The biocon would say no. You (at least the "you" of the example) died. The resleeved back up is a copy of you at a specific time, but it is missing a part of what made you you. We can also extend this to forks. Say an alpha fork of you was made. The fork is identical to you in every way. He is a perfect copy. From that point on however he is going to have different experiences and be shaped in different ways than you are. He will likely grow into someone similar to you, but he is still a separate being. Now let's take this to egocasting. When you egocast, you are transferring files from one device to another. All a file transfer is is copying data from one machine to another, then deleting the original file. You are the original file, the being that comes out on the other end is the copy. It is a separate being from the original you, just like a fork or back up. That is a wholly different thing than the natural* change that occurs in a person as they go through life. *I don't intend the use of the word "natural" to be tied to any idea of validity, preference or superiority, although my former countrymen probably would.