William T. Riker, Plural. (“Think Like a Dinosaur” Thoughts)

James Patrick Kelly’s “Think Like a Dinosaur” drew a connection for me to, yet again, Star Trek (shocker).  Star Trek’s teleporters work very similar to the reptilian design in the short story: both destroy the old body while simultaneously recreating it in a different location.  It is more like translation than teleportation; no real atoms are moved.  Except in Star Trek’s case, the body must be destroyed first, thus people can be lost in the process.  During class I had little to add to the overall discussion aside from similarities in teleportation technology, but afterwards I remembered an episode of season six of Star Trek the Next Generation.

In the episode Second Chances, the Starship Enterprise returns to Nervala IV to recover crucial data information lost eight years ago when the planet’s orbit got too close to the sun, forcing the planetary crew to evacuate.  This orbit also causes a distortion field that screws with the teleporters.  Last to evacuate was then Lieutenant William Riker, but the distortion field made the teleport chief attempt it twice.  One translation made it back to the starship, while the second bounced off the distortion field and translated another Riker on the planet’s surface.  The crew leave, believing to have Riker, and leave another Riker behind.

So when Commander Riker beams down, he confronts himself.  But they are drastically different people.  Commander Riker was promoted quickly, and he has served the prestigious position of First Officer on the Enterprise.  Meanwhile the other Riker has merely tried to survive.  Lieutenant Riker also chooses to go by Thomas by the end of the episode, so from now on he shall be referred to as such.

They have other differences too, Tom is more rash than Will.  Tom is also still deeply in love with Troi, whom Will has decided not to pursue romantically despite his feelings for the sake of his career.  Tom also seems to forget the chain of command when being commanded by seemingly himself, and is quick to point out the only true difference between them is circumstance.  But by now they have drifted into very different people.

But there is a moment when Will warns Troi to be careful when falling in love with Tom, because Will doesn’t want himself(?) to hurt her again.  He brings up the fact that if Tom had made it up instead of him, he would have chosen the same choice to drift away from her.

This begs the question: could Tom have made a different choice?  The general implication feels like a resounding no, that the same person experiencing the same events would make the same decision.  Not that they wouldn’t still have the free choice, but that the exact same individual, with no hindsight, would make the same decision if faced with the same circumstances.  The only reason Tom feels different is because he had eight lonely years to attach himself to Troi, eight years of obsession Will never faced.

From here on Tom and Will are essentially different people, but it still poses religious concerns such as do each have a soul?  Can the essence of a person actually be duplicated in this manner?  One could argue the second one materializes on the ground and the other in the starship they have different experiences and are so different people, but it still feels murky.

Regardless, they become drastically different people.  They have separate personalities Will continues to become a highly regarded admiral, and Tom becomes some sort of terrorist in an episode of Deep Space Nine to boost ratings.