Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 46 – Personality Synchronization

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Hello Ms. Jessica!

There are many mutants out there with more than one head, or other thinking body parts. It got me wondering about a few things.

What affects synchronization? Can it vary by mood or circumstance? Can I be acting as one person with three heads one day and conjoined triplets the next? How do you determine synchronization and what is the process like for becoming two or more legal people after mutating if you have low synchronization.

Hey again,

So what normal people call synchronization is really just a matter of how independent a mutant’s nervous system is. From a legal perspective, in port solei we say that if you are more than 60% asynchronous you are two different people, but that differs from city to city and country to country. From a biological perspective it’s actually quite cut and dry.

When two brains (or brain like organs) are able to function completely independently, then they are considered two different people. You can actually monitor this with an EKG. The brain shows two very different responses when responding to internal or external stimuli. I.E. your neural pathways that trigger when you see something are different from the neural pathways that trigger when you imagine seeing something or think about seeing something.

We use these properties to devise simple tests. Put EKGs on both heads and have one speak. Does the second brain respond as if it is speaking or does it respond as if it is listening?

Having this biological metric is important, because two different people can be similar in personality but still be two different people, and getting that wrong could be a very real infraction of rights in certain places.

As for whether mutants can be more or less synchronized on certain days, remember that the only thing we are really concerned about is biology. Mutants can certainly act similar certain days but if they are still two different people, and then they are still considered two different people.

There is one kind of shady grey spot. Some goo or slime girls have the ability to fuse into another living being to create one whole new being. In this case, their biological matter fuses with the brain to create a new brain. In this circumstance, both girls separate would be individual entities and together they would be an individual entity as well.

I’m not an expert in government bureaucracy but here in Port Solei we use a simple system. If you partake in official government tracked activities (address registration, doctor’s visits, so on so forth) for more than 40% of the time as a fused being, then that being is active enough of a time to be considered a separate citizen, and has all the rights conferred onto them as a normal citizen.