# Android Souls, Re: (urth) Re: Antechamber, Jonas, navigator *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 12 Jun 1999* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Mitchell A. Bailey *12 Jun 1999, 19:03* > Peter Stephenson wrote: > > "Roy C. Lackey" wrote: ... Ascribing >> human emotions such as "shock", "agitation", loyalty, love, friendship, >> loss, etc. to an android are misplaced. > I don't think it can be that simple. As someone was saying just earlier in > the week, Wolfe writes about non-humans as if they have `souls' in some > sense. They're not completely human --- but they're not completely inhuman > either, just like Jonas himself. ... > corncrake Who was it who wrote earlier that Wolfe regularly explores the boundaries of what constitutes humanity? " If it's possible for someone to lose his humanity, surely it must be possible for something that once had none to find it". Severian referred specifically to Jonas in that remark (IV, ch. X). Or look in 5HC, in "Fifth Head" where Number Five attempts to question Mr. Million regarding whether he has a soul or just some very sophisticated programming capable of "simulating" a soul for the observer. Mr. Million pleads ignorance, citing the lack of a frame of reference from which he could explore the matter. ---