Dagny successfully lobbies against a political prohibition of the asteroid expedition. The crew comprises:
Lars Rydberg, captain;
Edmond Beynac, geologist;
Kaino, a Lunarian son of Edmond and Dagny;
Ilitu, Lunarian graduate student of Edmond;
Manyane Nkuhlu, spaceman;
Antonio Oliveira, spaceman.
Meanwhile, Anson Guthrie's download, moving around in a robot body, visits Dagny, who is now directing the construction at Astrebourg, on the Moon. The robot body, looking like medieval armor, has a turret with a speaker, sonic sensors and a ring of optics. The turret does not turn to look around a room. Instead, the download moves its attention from one optic to the next around the turret. For his inspiring public speeches and private phone calls, the download controls a synthesized audio-visual of the middle-aged Anson Guthrie.
Will he switch himself off when he has tied up the loose ends of Fireball? Maybe not:
"'This is a hell of an interesting universe yet.'" (p. 265)
My sentiments exactly. Neil Gaiman's Death offers to take the immortal Englishman, Hob Gadling, who replies, "Not now. Maybe never."
Meanwhile, Edmond Beynac dies in space.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I admit, assuming it is possible to download a human personality like this, I don't think I would have my copy terminated! I think and hope my download would be too interested to want to do that.
Sean
Sean,
In Catholic theology, you have an immortal soul. Would your download have one? Or does the claimed necessity of an immaterial soul for self-consciousness, intellect and will rule out the possibility of personality downloads? But suppose someone did download a personality into an artificial neural network?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have had such thoughts in the back of my mind! The questions you raised would become crucial matters of debate if such a thing as the downloading of human personalities into artificial neural networks became possible. I'm still so skeptical of such a thing that I simply don't think it's even possible.
Sean
Sean,
But IF, as the empirical evidence suggests, consciousness results from organism-environment and neural interactions, then IN PRINCIPLE such interactions can be generated artificially.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
IF I believed in any kind of materialism of that kind, which I do not. I still find the arguments of John Wright against materialism more convincing than the arguments for.
Sean
Sean,
Remember that not all materialism is reductionist. Some of us think that qualitative changes include the emergence of new, irreducible properties like consciousness.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
But, ultimately, I still think all materialist arguments are, de facto, reductionist, still coming down to claiming the human mind, thought, personality, soul, etc., has only materialist origins. Which I continue to disagree with.
Sean
Sean,
Material origins, yes. Reduction of psychology to mechanics, no. Philosophically, "matter" just means "being," that which is, whether it is conscious or not.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I wish it was somehow possible for you to discuss such matters with John Wright. He too is a philosopher, after all. And far more qualified than I am for discussing such matters. But I know you have had difficulties with him.
Sean
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