Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-26397825-20151211051732/@comment-24908808-20151229040026

Shadow at Morning wrote: And you have the teleporter murder problem. One's identity is entirely contained in the neural architecture. So if you scan it, reconstruct it elsewhere with no continuity, and destroy the original, are you committing murder? That's hard to say. The identity still exists and is not destroyed; it switches with another identity. Think of it like... two people having books that have their names on it. They trade, but leave the books alone without changing anything else.

You'd be doing exactly  that to two different people. And how the hell, as written, could it not affect aura and semblance? Those are intrinsically tied to identity and, being physical phenomena, are thus attached to the brain, its architecture, and the resulting neural net. I was assuming this only affects the mind, and not the soul. Aura and semblance are connected to the soul. I'll quote myself:

" I think the thing that pulls this altogether is: Are brains connected to souls? A person's personality is found in their memories, which become integrated in their mindset. (When they are born they can become any person possible. Experiences (which are remembered as memories) shape them into people.) Instead of 'effectively reprogramming their soul', I prefer to think that only their mind is affected -- which is the intended effect."

 In the RWBY universe, this would depend on whether aura and semblance are born with the baby or develop as it grows and gains a personality. If it's the latter -- tied to identity -- then would it suddenly change when the identity/personality changes? I do believe there is a link somewhere, but it's a little too coincidental. (I think it's more to do with character design rather than an in-universe thing.) Who knows, maybe it's the other way around and personality is based on aura/semblance.

Atlas needed decades of research and billions of lien to even begin to attempt to do this, and it's seen as  mad, fringe science,  at best  borderline unethical. This is not something within the known power of semblance. They already have the technology to transfer aura artificially.

It probably is unethical, but ethics dictate moral use and not existence.