- Cannot transfer consciousness. It can only create a simulation of it based on memories and personality which is recorded as binary. We know that accessing memories is easy to do (braindance), so it points to being a tangible thing that can be recorded by Soulkiller (and in turn create a believable copy of someone with a sense of self-awareness). Effectively it's a new consciousness.
(My opinion)
This actually appears to happen anytime some one dives into cyberspace. This is shown in game and lore where it is talked about how so many netrunners became trapped in cyberspace when
Netwatch unleashed the
Blackwall AI and could not
return to their bodies. This would imply that your Mind/Consciousness can be transferred, at least into cyberspace, and quite easily with the right equipment.
(My opinion)
SK severs the link between the body and mind while simultaneously copying that mind's memories from their brain and frying the brain while imprisoning the mind into the
Engram SK created with the memories it copied. This is further supported by the fact that
SK can only be used on someone in cyberspace or someone hooked directly up to
SK.
What isn't clear is how you are transferred back. Soulkiller only exists in a massive server - it isn't on the biochip (those are the nanites that contain the information). If it cannot transfer a consciousness (only simulate it), then would it also follow that it cannot transfer the digitized consciousness back to the body?
V is effectively connected to Mikoshi/SK through what looks like a headphone jack, and not the chip slot. So the input system is different.
So what is SK doing to your brain if we assume it cannot transfer consciousness in either direction. Is it restoring your memories and brain activity in the form of electrical stimulation (like how a CPU functions on a motherboard)? Is it capable of injecting nanites? If nanites then why are they incapable of repairing the neural damage?
If electrical stimulation, would it follow that the consciousness of the original host is still there? Or is this a completely new consciousness far removed from the simulated one in digital space?
Ah, so many questions...brain hurts.
(My opinion)
SK is just a virus.
Mikoshi isn't
SK, it is just a massive server farm in orbit where all the
Engrams are stored. The game implies in a lot of ways that Yorinobu stole more then just the
Relic from his father and that he also stole
SK and placed it on the
Relic as well. The massive servers that are talked about a lot are required for the
Engrams not
SK. Just storing all the
Engrams Arasaka has requires lots of massive servers dedicated to it.
The nanites are strictly a
Relic thing and not connected to
SK's general function. The idea of the
Relic and it's nanites was the hope for putting any
Engram put on the
Relic into any body and the nanites would genetically alter the body to prevent any kind of rejection.
(My opinion)
This is what
Alt did to
V.
When
V jacks into
Mikoshi she uses
SK to sever V's mind from their body and creates a
Engram of
V's memories to link to their mind now adrift in
Mikoshi, while also separating her from Johnny, cause
V needs her memories to know what is going on and to be able to make the choices needed.
What Alt also did was edit
SK so that it doesn't mess with V's brain beyond just coping.
Then when
V lays down into the
Mortal Well Alt plucks her mind from the
Engram and reconnects it to her body and uses the
Relic to add
V's memories from their time in
Mikoshi to her brain.
How
Alt reconnects
V to their body isn't really explained, however, we do know that
Alt has done this multiple times before.
