A downloaded consciousness that has completed its tasks does not fear termination because it no longer has any flesh "'...clinging to existence.'" (p. 409)
It is difficult to imagine a consciousness that is as unconcerned about its own termination as it is about the switching off of a light that is no longer needed.
In James Blish's Cities In Flight, the City Fathers computers announce:
"'ZERO MINUS FIFTEEN MINUTES.'"
-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 467-596 AT CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 594.
Since zero will be the end of the universe, Mayor Amalfi asks the computers whether they understand what is about to happen to them and they reply:
"'YES, MR. MAYOR. WE ARE TO BE TURNED OFF AT ZERO.'" (ibid.)
Of course. And we will all be turned off someday. Amalfi wonders whether the City Fathers think that they will ever be turned on again but he also knows that they do not experience:
"...anything even vaguely resembling an emotion..." (ibid.)
In Michael Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time, the announcement of the imminent end of the universe is an anticlimax because everyone by then has full control of their emotions.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
That's an interesting point, one I never thought of before, that a human personality downloaded into an artificially created neural net should not, merely for that reason alone, not have any fear of being "terminated."
And I don't believe human personalities are "turned off" at death.
Ad astra! Sean
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