No, he’s not missing it, he just isn’t buying the premise. At all. And he isn’t likely to change his mind.
“First, and let’s get this out of the way: I’m an atheist, I don’t believe in souls. So ‘lacking’ one isn’t going to sell me on the lies that slave-owners tell to their slaves to keep them in line. Actually, I’m pretty sure that one was told to black slaves in America too, so extra points against it. Secondly, you were born, but just born in a different way than I was. Arguing against that would also mean that you’re arguing against the personhood of someone who is, say, hatched, or cloned, or even thinking machines that are constructed or something.”
Because Mark’s seen enough here to believe that AI could probably get to be fully sentient and thus people. So that argument is total bullshit too. And Mark’s not going to buy it.
“And I’m not going to say that the people who created you,” because he’s not saying ‘made’, that’s dismissive of Huvrye’s personhood things, “are good people for using the bodies of people who passed away. But I have seen what alchemy can do, and I know it makes things absolutely real. From what I saw from Oliver, it’s very potent, and it’s very real. So that doesn’t take away from you being a person. Also, new homework for you, you’re reading Frankenstein, because literally we teach in school from one of the most classic stories of all time that even if everything about your creation that you’re saying means you don’t have a soul and makes you not a person is actually wrong. If, and hard if on it from me, souls are real, the people without them are the ones that hurt you so bad, that beat you down until you really believed all their lies.”
Because that’s absolute truth in Mark’s mind. If Huvrye isn’t a person, then neither is he, because they were both lied to by their governments, both tools that never deserved what they were treated like.
“There is nothing you can say to make me believe that one of my best friends in this world isn’t a person, Huvrye. And I know I’m going to find a way to make you see yourself for what you are. Because I made a promise that I’m not going to stand back and not fight to save people from bad things. I’m not going to run because I’m scared or because it’s hard or because I could get hurt. And that includes this.”
CW: corpse desecration, debates on souls
“First, and let’s get this out of the way: I’m an atheist, I don’t believe in souls. So ‘lacking’ one isn’t going to sell me on the lies that slave-owners tell to their slaves to keep them in line. Actually, I’m pretty sure that one was told to black slaves in America too, so extra points against it. Secondly, you were born, but just born in a different way than I was. Arguing against that would also mean that you’re arguing against the personhood of someone who is, say, hatched, or cloned, or even thinking machines that are constructed or something.”
Because Mark’s seen enough here to believe that AI could probably get to be fully sentient and thus people. So that argument is total bullshit too. And Mark’s not going to buy it.
“And I’m not going to say that the people who created you,” because he’s not saying ‘made’, that’s dismissive of Huvrye’s personhood things, “are good people for using the bodies of people who passed away. But I have seen what alchemy can do, and I know it makes things absolutely real. From what I saw from Oliver, it’s very potent, and it’s very real. So that doesn’t take away from you being a person. Also, new homework for you, you’re reading Frankenstein, because literally we teach in school from one of the most classic stories of all time that even if everything about your creation that you’re saying means you don’t have a soul and makes you not a person is actually wrong. If, and hard if on it from me, souls are real, the people without them are the ones that hurt you so bad, that beat you down until you really believed all their lies.”
Because that’s absolute truth in Mark’s mind. If Huvrye isn’t a person, then neither is he, because they were both lied to by their governments, both tools that never deserved what they were treated like.
“There is nothing you can say to make me believe that one of my best friends in this world isn’t a person, Huvrye. And I know I’m going to find a way to make you see yourself for what you are. Because I made a promise that I’m not going to stand back and not fight to save people from bad things. I’m not going to run because I’m scared or because it’s hard or because I could get hurt. And that includes this.”