The Ethical Dilemma of Cyberpunk 2077’s Soulkiller Project
Running from the Reaper

While a personality construct replacing one’s consciousness isn’t quite a feat we’ve reached today, you can compare the process to cloning, which is most definitely an available technology.

In Cyberpunk 2077, Arasaka’s Soulkiller project aims to grant immortality and “godhood” to higher-ups such as Saburo. Cloning, with a bit of tweaking, can also accomplish this, albeit it’ll be a good few years before the process is perfected.

Dolly was a cloned sheep part of The Roslin Institute’s methods of producing modified livestock. Through the process of Somatic cell nuclear transfer, (removing DNA from an unfertilized egg and replacing it with the nucleus of the intended clone), the identical clone of a sheep was created for the first time with an adult cell. This was groundbreaking, as the process was not thought of as possible, and opened many doors for discussion.

While cloning animals for experiments is debated ethically, the real discussion is at the level of cloning humans. Many argue that the process is simply “playing God” and morally wrong, but it also brings on many practical issues, such as impacting the gene pool. Societal side effects are expected, as we see in the ending of Cyberpunk 2077, where the Soulkiller project is commercialized and only the powerful can become “immortal.” Religion also comes into play when discussing the ethics of cloning. Genetic engineering has been condemned by Protestant theologian, Paul Ramsey because it “threatens Christian views on human happiness, morality, power, and procreation.”

Cyberpunk’s unique take on cloning lays within the possible corporate oppression that comes with it. Power is constantly shifting, exchanging between the hands of different people as history goes on. With the technology to clone someone, power can remain in one individual’s hand, and if the ability to be cloned is commercialized, what does that mean for those at the bottom? Are they forever doomed to be ruled by the wealthy, for eternity?

Arasaka offers V the opportunity to be uploaded to Mikoshi while the company looks for a body for V to be uploaded into. This was the final decision in my game, one that I declined. Signing V’s rights over to Arasaka was something I wasn’t planning to do. Call it the Silverhand influence, but after watching the final events of the game unfold, I wish I had gone out in a blaze of glory instead of helping Arasaka reach their goals of becoming immortal.
['Paul Lombardo']
['Ethics', 'Technology', 'Business', 'Gaming', 'Features']