Daven Laure anthropomorphizes neither his computer nor "...nonhuman sophonts..." (p. 714) but does not think that:
"...human-sensibility terms [are] absolutely meaningless in such connections." (ibid.)
He reflects that alien and cybernetic brains think, are aware and have conation. (If Jaccavrie has an artificial brain, then she is not a mere computer.)
To anthropomorphize is to attribute human form, personality or attributes to the nonhuman. Laure attributes awareness, thought and will to Jaccavrie, does imagine her as a dark-haired, middle-aged woman and also thinks of her as a friend. (p. 716) I am concerned that some Rangers regard their ships merely as elaborate tools. The ships are either conscious or unconscious and that matters.
In an earlier story of the Technic History, we were told that the universe produces sophonts like snowflakes but, in "Starfog," human civilizations fill several spiral arms of the galaxy whereas nonhuman sophonts do not seem to be prolific.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
For the purposes of "Starfog," and some of his other stories and novels, Anderson hypothesized the actuality of AIs. And near the end of "The Troublewisters" we see Muddlehead stating: "However, my understanding is that in a commercially and individualistically oriented civilization, any legitimate earnings belongs to the owner." And, if that was so, the courts would have to rule Muddlehead, and by extension, Jaccavrie, were indeed persons.
One reason we don't see much mention of non humans in Anderson's post-Imperial stories was because he wrote only four of them, and only one was a novel. We probably would have seen non humans if he had written more stories set during the Long Night and later times.
Ad astra! Sean
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