Summary

• The concept of digital immortality through engrams is a core element of Cyberpunk 2077's story.
• Engrams are created using the program Soulkiller, which can store the consciousness and memories of dying individuals.
• The engrams in Cyberpunk 2077 are suggested to be interpretations of data, not accurate representations of the actual person, although with developments in technology this could change.

One of the core elements of engram of Johnny Silverhand who players interact with throughout the game, as he appears via a prototype version of Arasaka's "Relic" technology embedded in the protagonist, V's head. However, unlike the aforementioned CEOs who would volunteer to have an engram made, Johnny was forced into such a situation as an experiment by the megacorp, Arasaka.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077]

Throughout the story, V discovers that the Relic is killing them, and decisions have to be made around whether they cling onto life and search for a cure, or let Johnny Silverhand take over their body. In doing so, players experience sequences where they see what they believe to be Johnny's memories, or where they momentarily let Johnny take control of V's body and become him. Despite this, it's implied that while the former Samurai frontman may seem real and can be talked to as another person in the room, he and his memories are simply nothing but data that V is interpreting, and the real person ceased to exist almost half a decade ago, posing the question of whether or not an engram truly is an accurate representation of a person.

Soulkiller Used To Live Up To Its Name

Earlier Versions Of Soulkiller Would Erase The Personality Of A Person

Engrams are made using a program named Soulkiller, which was developed by Johnny Silverhand's former lover, Alt Cunningham, during her time at the software development corp, ITS. The original intention was to use Soulkiller as a way of preserving the consciousness and memories of dying individuals, however, this technology was stolen by Arasaka during the time of the Fourth Corporate War and used as away to kill its enemies and save their engram for later interrogation, storing them in the Mikoshi database.

Alt Cunningham was abducted by Arasaka and experimented on to test the Soulkiller software. During a failed rescue attempt, the link between Alt's engram and her body was disconnected, killing her body and leaving her trapped in the net as a digital entity.

Earlier versions of Soulkiller would wipe the original personality of a person away, leaving a mindless husk that eventually dies, earning its namesake. Over time, however, this was developed to allow engrams to be created without completely killing the individual, with the more human appearances seen during Cyberpunk 2077's story with Johnny Silverhand and Saburo Arasaka.

The Secure Your Soul Program Was Closer To Alt's Vision

The New Program Preserved Personalities

Over time, Hanako Arasaka reworked Soulkiller into a product that could be marketed, while keeping previous versions as a weapon to be used on enemies. The idea grew closer to Alt's original vision, which would preserve a person's consciousness - along with their personality - and transfer it into a clone body, and was packaged as the "Secure Your Soul" program.

The shard Secure Your Soul: Medical Report 11 confirms that by 2077, the process is no longer lethal except when accidents occur, with the potential for multiple engrams to be created, unlike earlier versions where the original body would be destroyed, thus only creating one engram.

Secure Your Soul was then sold to VIP clients in Night City as a way to achieve immortality. However, with a list compiled of politicians, celebrities, artists with cultural or economic influence, religious leaders, government , CEOs and more, it's clear Arasaka could use these engrams as a way to secretly acquire useful information much as it did with its enemies via Soulkiller.

Cyberpunk 2077's Endings Explore Whether Engrams Truly Achieve Digital Immortality

Or If They Are Merely Data

Despite such an improvement in technology, some of Cyberpunk 2077's endings see V and Johnny talk with the digital image of Alt Cunningham in cyberspace, while making a decision as to which one they would let return to V's body, and which one would go beyond the Blackwall and be destroyed. By this point, the Relic has overwritten V's core DNA, and sees Johnny as the body's true host, and V as an intruder.

During this conversation, Alt explains that Soulkiller only copies the psyche and memories of a person, and does not transfer their consciousness to the engram or net, suggesting that the engrams are not truly the person they are based on, but merely data. This matches with Johnny and V's earlier meeting with Alt, where she already stated that she was merely the image of Alt Cunningham preserved so as not to become data like the other AIs, and that the actual person was long dead, furthering the idea that engrams are not a full recreation of a person.

However, where V's body is still connected to the system, the engram can be transferred back to their body and overwrite any previous engrams on it. During this sequence, V realizes that they're already an engram, with Alt making one of them the moment they linked up to the Mikoshi database to separate V and Johnny into two separate entities. V is shocked by this tactic at first, which suggests they feel like it's not the real version of them on some level.

If players chose to do the final levels in the game as V rather than letting Johnny take over, they didn't even notice this happening and, from their perspective, seemed to be carrying on from where their organic mind was before. This suggests that while Alt made a digital copy of V, the original person still seems to be in there.

This moment of realization can be seen from Johnny's perspective if players choose to let Johnny take control of V's body and team up with Rogue for the final assault on Arasaka Tower.

Saburo Arasaka's Digital Immortality Causes Controversy

One Cyberpunk 2077 Ending Sees Saburo Arasaka Reborn

When following Cyberpunk 2077's "The Devil" ending, if players choose to get help from Arasaka in exchange for its current CEO Yorinobu, V sees various news reports following his surgery that show Yorinobu's father, Saburo Arasaka's engram has been put into his body. During one interview, Saburo claims that this was completely consensual and should be legal - although it's unlikely this was the case considering Saburo is aware of his son's betrayal and how he was responsible for his murder.

While Saburo's return restores the status quo with rival megacorp Militech and diffuses a brewing corpo-war, the decision to assume control of his son's body causes wide-spread controversy, with religious groups, human-rights groups, corporations, and more all speaking out against it. This even results in Arasaka meeting with the President of the NUSA, Rosalind Myers to discuss the legalities of placing someone's mind in someone else's body.

The return of Saburo - albeit in a different physical form - very much seems to show him as the person he was before his death. It's worth noting that whereas Johnny's engram was made with earlier tech, Saburo's is made with the most cutting-edge technology. With this in mind, it's possible that the world of Cyberpunk 2077 could be closer to a full transference of one's mind into another body, maintaining a person's identity, personality and more rather than simply data.