So I know that The Red Star revives individuals that died in the MU, but doesn’t anyone else think truly that…the individuals are actually dead and gone and these are just copies, imprints and not the real original individual? Similar to how if you download the consciousness of a human into another body and the human dies, it’s not like they are revived, they died, this is just a copy. Would that same thing not apply to the Red Star inhabitants?
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My friend, you are getting into all sorts of philosophical questions. I’m afraid there isn’t an easy answer, if there even is a real one.
I suggest watching this video from Vsause:
It talks a lot about the ways we define and determine “existence” and certain applicable philosophical questions like the Ship of Theseus.
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Interesting, I see what your saying, more or less I’m just curious, if anyone thinks they are the real deal when revived or is it just common consensus that everyone here thinks they are just a downloaded consciousness that is just a copy, I’m positive there is no definitive answer, it is merely my curiosity of the opinions of others.
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We don’t really know much about what the MUians thought of the Red Star. Gaardus seemed to know how it worked, but, beyond that, it isn’t discussed much, which leads me to believe that they didn’t think it was out of the ordinary or of particular philosophical importance.
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Pretext
First off, I’m just going to be assuming that we’re talking about revivals which actually worked as intended, not whatever zombie-creatures the Kestora were making in The Powers That Be.
I don’t see why it can’t be both. It’s true that a revived being’s thoughts and feelings are flowing through a new body (assuming that the Kestora didn’t just fix their old one), but why should that make them matter any less? Would Turaga Lhikan suddenly be expendable cannon fodder just because his memories are in a new body? (I’m actually pretty sure that Lhikan still has his old body, but you get my point)
Data is data; there’s no “original data” that is somehow more alive or real than a copy. It doesn’t matter which body it’s in, or even how many bodies it’s in; the character’s memories and personality are still the same.
I suppose it’s true that they are a copy in the sense that their data is no longer connected to the body it was first put into, but I don’t see why they should be “just” a copy.
The lines are blurred even further for Bionicle characters, since their “data” was artificially created to begin with. You can’t even claim that they’re different on the grounds that the “copy” has a fabricated/reconstructed personality, because the “original”'s personality was equally fabricated.
If you’re just looking for a simple yes/no answer to gauge community opinion, then I would say that I still see revived beings as the same character.
(Again, assuming that the revival worked properly and their AI didn’t get corrupted or something.)
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That makes perfect sense, thank you, it does make sense to me as well that it would matter even less because of what they are and how they operate, so then Makuta would be an exception would they not? As I’m pretty sure they don’t have a downloaded or data based consciousness but are a gaseous Energy form with a conscience?
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Oh man, I think the SOMA/NieR themes may be a bit much even for Bionicle, as much as I love them 
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Makuta actually cannot be revived by the Red Star because of their gaseous state. They could before evolving, but, at this point, they can’t.
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No they couldn’t. The Red Star could never revive anyone made of Antidermis:
EDIT:
I mean, they were created by Mata Nui somehow; I don’t see why they wouldn’t have data. Plus, in the third quote I’ve provided above, Greg implies that the only things preventing the Makuta from being revived is that they’re made from a different substance, not that they have different forms of consciousness.
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Thank you for the information and the links to what Greg said! You answered my question! One off topic question, was Icarax and any other makuta present during the battle against the league of six kingdoms or only Teridax and the toa and other individuals fighting in the battle?
My mistake, I misremembered the logistics of how Makuta worked.
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I’m probably getting the quote wrong, but I think it’s relevant:
“I have told you, Mr. Potter, that portraits do not represent half of their subjects.”
-Professor McGonagoll
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Greg has said several times that the reason he leans slightly more toward the MU brains being mechanical in nature is that those would be much easier to transfer consciousness in the Red Star.
So at least Greg thinks that the transfer is real. Thatt is probably the closest we will ever get to an answer.
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One thing I don’t fully grasp is how the Makuta would have mechanical or data based consciousness when they are a gaseous state of energy? I know someone gave their opinion above about this but it just doesn’t make any sense, even if we don’t follow the same laws of physics in Bionicle, it doesn’t make sense in a Bionicle sense, most beings are biomechanical and can follow the mechanical mind idea quite well but the Makuta literally evolved, the only beings I read about in the MU evolving on their own, not only evolved but have no physical form at all. On top of that it’s not like a T-1000 where the “brain” is made of many liquid molecules, Makuta can be a solid, liquid and gaseous form, it just would not work.
Makuta are gaseous - as far as I understand it, they have “gas synapses” in the form of electrical impulses that course through the gas as they think, move, etc.
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Ah I see, that actually makes sense. Thank you!
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Okay so just to make it clear, what the Makuta did was not evolution. Evolution happens on a generational basis not an individual one.
So what they did was learn how to transform themselves into their current form.
As for how they can exist in this state despite their original mechanical form, this goes deep into the debate of what consciousness is but if you think of the brain as a computer and the mind as a complex program, in theory that program can be transferred it doesent require the original computer to run. The Makuta simply learned how to make their consciousness work in the antidermis state.
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I can’t find anything explicitly confirming this either way, but my guess would be no, mostly because that battle was written before it was known that there were Makuta other than Teridax. Besides, I can’t really imagine any Makuta working beneath another Makuta.
Small nitpick, they didn’t really “learn” to transform themselves; it just happened and they had to figure out how to deal with it.
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Well in the Mutran Chronicles Mutran stated Teridax led the battle with the full might of the brotherhood of Makuta and toa and exo toa and said only he and Gorast got clean up duty. So my thought was that the other Makuta were present during the battle with Teridax at the helm, he was Miserix second in command so they might have actually followed him into battle.