What happens if you Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V on the Doctor’s data files? Do you duplicate a sentient being?
In “Virtuoso”, Tom & Harry try to reproduce the Doctor but they’re basically trying to make him from scratch, so I don’t think their failure is relevant.
At the end of “Author, Author” we see many repurposed EMH Mk1s working as miners:
…and they seem to be self-aware, so I guess we have to assume that it’s technically feasible.
But then what happens if you Ctrl+Z?
Basically, yeah, if you include all of their memories and experiences. The EMHs in the dilithium mines were EMH copies but weren’t The Doctor. I’ve also wondered if they were sentient or just good facsimiles. Part of The Doctor’s story arc was growing beyond his original EMH programming (plus B’Elanna expanding his matrix in some pretty hacky ways). So that leads me to believe that they weren’t sentient, though they had the potential to become so.
Anyway…
That said, the Doctor from “Living Witness” was, if I recall, the Backup EMH and had all of the The Doctor’s memories and was fully sentient as a result.
Essentially it would be the Will / Thomas Riker transporter accident equivalent for holographic beings.
But then what happens if you Ctrl+Z?
VOY S5E11: Latent Image
Violence is what happens.
And given the immense file size, the ship’s computer will probably draw all power from life support.
Love how barclay turns right back to the Doctor in utter shock. Makes it look like the Doc was gentler than with paris xD
Short answer, “yes” with an “if.” Long answer, “no” with a “but.”
I#ll compare the Doc with a game. It should be possible to duplicate the project folder and recieve two identical copies. If you build the game, from either, you will recieve two identical builds. Over their life, they will accumulate individual experiences and become different people. Depending on how this data is retained within the EMH, it may be possible. But the doctor is liekly more complex than a puny game project file. I am not saying AI is sentient, but if you promted an LLM with the identical promt on two seperate new accounts, are you going to recieve the identical output? I honestly expect that the LLM’s answers will be somewhat different from each other.
There’s stuff about holograms being special and not easily copyable at least for the advanced memory state.
