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I was having a conversation in which I asked someone what their command would be if they were an awakened weapon, when I had a thought. Could you awaken metal with a command such as "Be Bob"? Obviously, the intent behind such a command would be almost impossible to pull off. After all, what and who is Bob? You would have to know absolutely everything about Bob, which would be almost impossible. However, if you were to use the command "Be me", I think it would be possible. So, what do you think? Is there some mad scientist on Nalthis with a collection of awakened tools that hold an exact imprint of his personality?

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I agree with you that this command could theoretically exist, but I feel like you'd need to pull off some singularity type stuff where first you do some special new awakening that helps you improve the intent of your commands, which might then have to go through several generations of making better and better intent-boosters, until finally you can use the command "be me." Maybe Endowment can do it though. If more breaths makes awakening easier, then the source of breaths must have an instinct for awakening that's off all the charts.

Now, interestingly, we do seem to see the beginnings of commands moving this direction in some of Vasher's equipment. Namely, "Fight for me as if you were me," "Upon call become my fingers and grip that which I must," and "Become as my legs and give them strength." With each of these, the breath is somehow able to interpret Vasher's wishes even after the command had been given, which definitely seems to be steps towards what you're talking about. It actually makes me wonder if your command, "be me" wouldn't create a clone, but rather a full extension of you, almost as if you were in possession of a second body. Now, I don't know how that would work with senses, but awakened object do seem to have some capacity to perceive the world around them. Though I definitely worry about the possibility of creating a lifeless with the command "be me." That's the seeds of some evil AI that wants to kill and replace the original stuff right there.

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12 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

I agree with you that this command could theoretically exist, but I feel like you'd need to pull off some singularity type stuff where first you do some special new awakening that helps you improve the intent of your commands, which might then have to go through several generations of making better and better intent-boosters, until finally you can use the command "be me." Maybe Endowment can do it though. If more breaths makes awakening easier, then the source of breaths must have an instinct for awakening that's off all the charts.

I don't think the command would be "that" hard to pull off. Looking at our only example of an awakened weapon, Nightblood, his command destroy evil failed (Sort of) because Shashara didn't stop to think  "Hm. What is evil, and how do I explain such a concept to a sword?". Be me would be a much easier command, because not only are you an expert on the subject of who "me" is, you also have a perfect example of what it is. However, I do admit that you might need to be extremely self-aware in order to ensure that the awakened object matches your actual personality instead of what you view yourself as, but I don't think you would need a shardic level of power and intelligence.

12 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

Now, interestingly, we do seem to see the beginnings of commands moving this direction in some of Vasher's equipment. Namely, "Fight for me as if you were me," "Upon call become my fingers and grip that which I must," and "Become as my legs and give them strength." With each of these, the breath is somehow able to interpret Vasher's wishes even after the command had been given, which definitely seems to be steps towards what you're talking about. It actually makes me wonder if your command, "be me" wouldn't create a clone, but rather a full extension of you, almost as if you were in possession of a second body. Now, I don't know how that would work with senses, but awakened object do seem to have some capacity to perceive the world around them. Though I definitely worry about the possibility of creating a lifeless with the command "be me." That's the seeds of some evil AI that wants to kill and replace the original stuff right there.

A lifeless awakened with that command would be really creepy, assuming the command worked. You could probably use the normal lifeless command, or maybe that command modified, and then just give it the order "Become me". Now I'm imagining a lifeless that slowly changes it's appearance to be a greyed-out version of you following me around, watching everything I do so that it can copy me.

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3 hours ago, Nameless said:

I don't think the command would be "that" hard to pull off. Looking at our only example of an awakened weapon, Nightblood, his command destroy evil failed (Sort of) because Shashara didn't stop to think  "Hm. What is evil, and how do I explain such a concept to a sword?". Be me would be a much easier command, because not only are you an expert on the subject of who "me" is, you also have a perfect example of what it is. However, I do admit that you might need to be extremely self-aware in order to ensure that the awakened object matches your actual personality instead of what you view yourself as, but I don't think you would need a shardic level of power and intelligence.

I don't think the limit is human intelligence, I think its imagination and understanding. Try to think of everything that goes into yourself. Not just your likes and dislikes or habits, but the motivations and history that led you to become who you are. All the people who's separate individual influences to whom you are the only connection that all poured into you. You hopes, fears, dreams, loves, and the interplay between them. Now hold that picture long enough to say, "be me." That's why I think this command would be so difficult. A person is complicated and you'd have to try and hold a mental simulation of yourself to fulfill the intent of the command.

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37 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

I don't think the limit is human intelligence, I think its imagination and understanding. Try to think of everything that goes into yourself. Not just your likes and dislikes or habits, but the motivations and history that led you to become who you are. All the people who's separate individual influences to whom you are the only connection that all poured into you. You hopes, fears, dreams, loves, and the interplay between them. Now hold that picture long enough to say, "be me." That's why I think this command would be so difficult. A person is complicated and you'd have to try and hold a mental simulation of yourself to fulfill the intent of the command.

I think it would be easier than that. Nightblood took an impossibly abstract command in "destroy evil" from a person who was almost certainly not qualified to say what evil was, and managed to become what he is. Add to this the fact that awakened objects can read minds, and you don't necessarily have to have an exact image in your mind. I agree that you would have to be remarkably self-aware, but I don't think you would need to have a shardic level of imagination and understanding. A fifth-ideal Lightweaver, for example, could probably do it.

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Oh wow, I think that should work, yeah. You would basically be creating a BioChromatic Breath based Cognitive Shadow, without the you dying part. It would be a simulacra or clone. Wait, would both of you have the exact same Spiritweb then? What would happen then, would the Spiritwebs merge because the Spiritual Realm wouldn't be able to differentiate between them and think they're the same thing and that would then make the two bodies share the same Spiritweb or maybe destroy one of the bodies?

Stormlight RoW spoilers

Spoiler

Maybe like the Nex-im?

Also, would there still be two different minds in case the two identical Spiritwebs merge? 

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3 hours ago, Honorless said:

Also, would there still be two different minds in case the two identical Spiritwebs merge? 

Assuming that you created a spiritweb with the awakening, I think you would still have two different minds. Shallan's alters are separate in the cognitive, so multiple minds can share the same spiritweb.

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Here's an idea to make it more possible: choose a close relative who looks like you and knows you well as the clone. We know from Arsteel that knowledge and skill is passed to Lifeless. If you, for instance, killed your identical twin and used the command "Be Me". I bet that that would make a pretty good clone. Certainly the best way I can think of in the Cosmere. 

 

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