See, I said before that everyone would start treating Momo differently now - and look - Faye called her 'kiddo'.
Momo is not a kiddo. But everyone will treat her like one. Not necessarily a bad thing, mark you; I'm just pointing out that nobody would ever have thought of calling Momo 'kiddo' before, even though she was the exact same character.
Of course, that in itself is a question - IS Momo the same character? Is character defined by personality or shape? Everyone will rush to say that personality is the most important, but how much of a difference does the shape make? If you could suddenly wake up one day in a different body, would you act differently? We certainly know Momo has behaved a little differently since the new chassis, but is that enough to make her a different 'person'?
I have to say that Momo's transformation reminds me very strongly of the feeling you get when meeting someone for the first time in ten years or so, having last seen them as a child. That young kid who you remember being a cute little eight year-old, now a grown adult in their twenties. It's entirely disconcerting.
Obligatory tropeFun and relevant comicWould I act differently in a different body? In all seriousness I have to believe I would. My social conditioning would remain the same but biologically I'd be an entirely separate being. Keeping the nurture but swapping the nature.
Though who's to say how that works as an AI? Hard drives are probably a bit more uniform than the biological brain, and the chemical component to biological thinking has probably been removed entirely.
Which of course is not to say that there aren't a host of other factors that would effect the change that would accompany adopting a new form. Quite likely your socialization has led to the associations with certain physical traits and appearances with certain other characteristics. When moving from one form to another these would likely become something that effects how you perceive yourself, which has a well documented track record of in turn effecting the self. In this respect even something like limb replacement could conceivably lead to the creation of new behaviors.
Edit: Crap crap. Gotta tie this back to the comic. So Momo's new behaviors are probably an entirely natural and likely documented part of the process of moving from one chassis to another. She's being a bit more willful which is likely due to her associating size with power to a degree, and potentially sees herself as a more equal or standard member of society now that she looks more like a person. If I were to take a wild guess. At the very least it is evident that she's much more comfortable operating on the social level of a the rest of the cast now.
Does this make her a new character? I wouldn't think so. Characters aren't meant to be static beings. I'd personally categorize it with character development or possibly just the variance that one can expect of the same character in multiple situations and scenarios. Often a character will lead one life in times of war, but display no predisposition for it in a peaceful scenario for example. Dora's sass levels have been shown to fluctuate depending on her current hair. Same general category. Seeing a new side of the same person as opposed to the birthing of a new person using the old as a framework.
I'm loving new Momo's moodier faces. Any bets on where she'll end up working? There's that bakery, but I can't really think of any established locations that would have us visiting her at work terribly frequently.
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Topic: WCDT: 2006-2010 (5-9 Sep 2011) (Read 82250 times)