Quote Originally Posted by Kaecilius View Post
The problem is that it *is* a philosophical debate. The narrative just doesn't bother with it.

It is implied that a lot of the citizens in Living Memory had no choice when it came to being uploaded to the cloud (see Namikka), it is also shown that they are living a happy existence and many of them have feelings, hopes and plans for the future.

Are they alive? Not exactly, but they have sentience and consciousness. There's a question of what being alive means that the game entirely sidesteps so we can be morally right.

The citizens of Living Memory are not to blame for the choices Sphene makes, and up until this point the system had not preyed upon any other reflection beyond the attack on Tuliyollal, and we've forgiven people that done shit much worse than that. Even Gaius is one of our best buddies.

What we did was necessary, but we never wrestled with the weight of it, because we don't consider their existence worthy of it.
I didn't say it wasn't a philosophical debate. It is. It's just such a simple one that there is no wrestling with it. They aren't alive. They are computer programs running the dead's memories over and over again ad infinitum. They aren't the souls of the people who died. The souls of the dead are sold to the citizens to be used to revive themselves when they die. They are purely the memories of the dead being forced to play out a happy life because the AI that contains Sphene's memories was programed to put the continuation of the simulation above all else. My WoL would happily shut down the simulation rather than go and start harvesting the souls of the billions of innocent lives in every reflection for the benefit of the tens of thousands in the simulation. It's not a debate. You either shut down the machine, or start throwing babies into the soul extracting wood chipper for Sphene.