Holothetes III

Poul Anderson, The Avatar, XXIII.

This is ambiguous. A lecturer states that a holothete can use force-fields and ions to manipulate amino acids. In this case, (it sounds as if) the computer-linked holothete is perceiving and acting on external reality. The lecturer then says that, quite often, a holothete "'...senses...that something is wrong with the model - and intuits what changes to make, what the real situation is, as we so often do in our ordinary lives.'" (p. 195)

Is the lecturer now describing the testing of a model within the computer or the application of the model to a "real situation" outside the computer? Has the discussion shifted without the reader fully realizing it?

I am going to try to unravel Joelle's and Eric's joint experience but that will take longer.