Yes, I actually love that awakening story. It’s been done in fiction before (e.g., “Cybernetic Samurai,” by Victor Milan) but Stephenson rendered it vividly. E

Yes, I actually love that awakening story. It’s been done in fiction before (e.g., “Cybernetic Samurai,” by Victor Milan) but Stephenson rendered it vividly. Even if we accept this on its face as possible, we still have no reason to believe that the digital Dodge will act the same way as the formerly-meat Dodge. Developmental trauma is a real thing. How did that experience of awakening change Dodge? If it changed him at all he’s no longer the same Dodge; if it didn’t change him, then he’s just an immutable copy. And then if we figure out some convoluted way to claim that Didi-Dodge will act/present the same as formerly-meat-Dodge, they’re not in any way the same person. Meat-Dodge is still dead, he just has a very lifelike digital replica.