Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 wk. ago

Your consciousness is transferred to a random North Korean child living in Pyongyang; How do you survive? How would you plan your escape?

Sorry if this is a weird question. I'm bored and randomly thought about reincarnation and started wondering, thought this would be a fun question. 😉

Rules:

All your current memory is instantly transferred when you fall asleep one night (you don't get any prior knowledge of this so you won't be able to make any preparations), then when you wake up, you are in the body of a random North Korean kid living in Pyongyang somewhere between age 10 and 14 and matching your gender assigned to your original body at birth (I'm sorry, I know this would be a struggle for those that don't identify with their gender assigned at birth, but it's part of the challenges of this hypothetical)
All psychological health conditions are also transferred (unfortunately)
Your new host body would not have any physical disabilities and is mostly healthy (sort of)
You don't have any of your host body's original memories, they're gone. (Edit: You retain any language that your host body's original consciousness have learned, but no memories) Their consciousness was overwritten by your consciousness's arrival and they, unfortunately, died. That consciousness wouldn't know or feel anything, it just vanishes, poof.
The person who was originally you in your old body, would immediately die during sleep, at the moment of the consciousness transfer occuring. Doctors could not find a cause of death, and its marked as "Unknown Cause of Death". No foul play would be found, no one would ever get falsely suspected by authorities of murdering you.

So how do you survive?

How do you plan your escape, or are you even gonna try?

👀

45 comments

All your current memory is instantly transferred

So, you are a normal Korean person, but lacking all the knowlege of how to behave in the culture where you live.

You are getting strong conflicts with normal people and with the law every day. Very soon nobody will give you a chance anymore.

Conclusion: you cannot survive.
- If you were full adult, sure. But at 10 years of age? You've got time.
  
  There are tons of Do's and Don'ts even for 10 year olds. And Asian cultures are not very forgiving.
Join the army, get sent to Ukraine, frag the Russikiy overseer and surrender to somebody wearing blue and yellow. Learn the taste of food or die trying.
- Is that before or after getting your squad addicted to internet porn?
  
  During. Use the noise and distraction to cover any gunfire/explosions that may be necessary.
- Damn I never thought about this.
  
  Drone noises be terrifying tho... 😬
- To my knowledge, there's no evidence to suggest child soldiers being sent in. But you could do the classic, "Yes I'm eighteen" as your voice cracks. I'm sure there's a greater chance than most other nations of it sliding through.
  
  Make sure you gain a shitload of intel before making your move. It would be far more valuable than anything you could manage with a gun at that age, this making a massive impact.
- > join north korean army > hopes to be sent to ukraine > gets sent to work with infrastructure within nope korea > have to dig with shovels and pickaxes > literal backbreaking labor > cannot slack or officer will whip my ass > 100g of rations for the day > cannot complain or officer will steal it
  
  Never said it was a perfect plan. I'm assuming that there'd be bribery and a significant amount of luck involved. If I don't get caught and sent to play a game of catch-mortar (or two or three depending on the dud rate), it might just work out.
I don't have an answer for this, but I love to imagine that these types of threads are posted by novelists trying to clear up any plot holes in their upcoming stories.
- Naw, I'm trying to have better dream scenarios so I don't end up in a weird zombie apocalypse scenario a few nights ago.
  
  Like, maybe running across a border is more of a fun dream, terrifying, but at least its not zombies. Think of it as a VR First Person Game, but you're dreaming. 😅
Counterpoint: your consciousness is transferred anywhere in the world ever. How do you escape your cultural programming, and what does it mean to be free?
Realistically? I probably wouldn't. And neither would you.
- Yea, I'd be quite fucked.
  
  I'd probably try and pretend I'm an ancient Chinese Emperor's reincarnation (I was born in China btw) and hope NK's relationship with China would at least not get me killed.
  
  But anyways, I updated the prompt, change the part where the language is now retained from the original host's consciousness.
I guess I'd learn Korean then get 평양냉면. I hear it's better in the North.
- Well your new physical brain is still young. I learned English at like age 8-9 when I first first arrived in the US, it'd be a bit of a challenge, but I believe in you.
- Btw I updated the prompt, now the language part of the original host's consciousness is retained, but no memories.
  
  I honestly forgot about that part about the language issue. 😅
Well, if I randomly take the place of an aristocratic child I can play the angle of "overachiever kid only talks in English/German/Russian to show off their skills".
Otherwise, neck rope.
I wouldn't, I'd just live there. Get to know the people and culture, get married, grow to old age and die. Just like almost everyone there, and most people in any country. I'd survive just like I'd survive in any other country: go to work every day to get income needed to eat, repeat the process ad infinitum until my body withers away from old age.
There's an inside meme between me and a bunch of friends regarding a dude in NK who looks into the camera while rest are looking boringly at a concert. We saw it around a year ago and it pretty much became an inside joke.

I would assume child me would try to find that person thinking if it's a revelation of some sorts. Not sure how helpful it would be to escape out of there. But even if I got brainwashed via their education; I know at my heart if I find this dude; I'll do everything to get him to lead the country.
Well, I’m Romanian & my country was like North Korea from 1947 to 1989. My great grandma (now 84 years old) was born and raised in a Dobrujan village - big, poor, farmer family. She dance & sang her way to Bucharest, where she met this man much older than her, high up in the party, wealthy, and became his long term mistress. So I’d do it like her, I’d network.
- That sounds like a movie plot
  
  Viața bate filmul - life beats movie, as us Romanians would say.
i would die
Honestly I'm not doing good with the rural shut-in USA campaign, especially with my poor rolls and lack of party. I don't like this game. I can cut and pan-fry vegetables, so I got goin' for me which is nice... hopefully a good skill to have as a N.Korean child.

Also I feel like hardly anybody would get across the DMZ ~~as a child~~ (as an adult still sounds a bit implausible). ~~Even learning Korean via English (without raising suspicion) seems unlikely without internet~~ so I am just expecting a Dwight-like story about escaping to China. EDIT: I see you changed the language bit
- Well, you can live out a few years of life and wait till you get older to try.
  
  I mean, try to become a diplomat, get a visa, get out, defect.
  
  Your family would be fucked, but then again, that wasn't really your real family anyways.
Why escape when I can thrive in North Korea?! I'd speak English, know about the outside world. I imagine I'd become a high level government employee, and maybe become Kim jong uns BFF!
- Coup! Coup! Coup! Coup! ✊
  
  Now you too can be supreme leader
I'd probably die of hunger or from being overworked for a minor fault in a year or so.

I could try to create some sort of boat with a low profile, using whatever trash and wood is available, in order to flee by sea (can n. koreans even go to the beaches alone?). Supposing I actually managed to build something that works, supposing that nobody ratted me (from my understanding, family and neighbors are your worst nightmare and will rat you out), supposing that no n. korean patrol boats caught me, I'd still have to manage paddling/rowing on an open ocean for a week or more. No way I'd manage to get enough food and water for that long time. Depending on the time of the year, the sun could prove fatal. Storms are another danger that could fuck me up big time.

Should everything work out fine (it wouldn't), I'd reach s. korean shores and turn myself in for asylum and maybe aim for a different continent. Supposing I kept my originally learnt languages, by now I'd know 3 (native br-portuguese, english and native korean), so I could try any anglophone country, or return to Brazil if I'm feeling stupid.
It would take awhile, but I'd want to join their Army so that I might be stationed near a border someday. Seems like a good way to secure food as well. If it were possible, I'd try to gain weight before the escape.
I'd just commit sudoku
- deleted by creator
Seeing as how I'd have list the last things keeping me from killing myself, I wouldn't.
I'd be chillin lmao. Maybe move to the countryside and work a farm if I could. Tf do you think the DPRK is like? If everyone was dying all the time or slaves there would not be much of a country. You can visit you know, as long as you aren't a citizen of the country who annihilated them for thinking differently.
- Wow, I've never seen a North Korea apologist before. This is honestly pretty interesting.

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