Kyra and the copy of download Guthrie do battle in space. Whereas the download is connected directly to his ship, Kyra must:
look through "jelly globules" (eyes);
calculate with a "wet sponge" (brain);
send synaptic signals (think) at molecular speed;
communicate thoughts through "an organic soundbox" (throat and mouth) and "ten jointed sticks" (fingers).
Of course, Kyra is not an entity using the wet sponge and synapses. She is these things, somehow.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But of course you realize that Anderson used this kind of description to show both the differences from the reprogrammed download Guthrie from Kyra and the difficulties she had to overcome during this combat.
Sean
In the context of those stories, she -is- using those things; she can exist as a coherent pattern of information with a continuity of consciousness without those things, as download Guthrie is doing.
That necessarily changes the fundamental framing of identity and what we "are".
It does.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
It does, assuming it is even possible to download a human personality into an artificial neural network, which remains to be seen.
Sean
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