{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2569",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2569,
    "subject": "A Soul in 2 Gigabytes of RAM",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-02-27T17:44:28+00:00",
    "last": "2001-02-27T17:44:28+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0282@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Talarican",
        "address": "exultnttalarican at mindspring.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-27T17:44:28+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) A Soul in 2 Gigabytes of RAM",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Some reflections on the robots of 5HC\n\nMuch has been written about the soul Mr. Million, the purely electronic\ncyborg \"simulation\", clearly exhibits. Indeed the simulation seems to have\nmore of a soul (filled primarily with regrets, it would seem) than Maitre or\nthe other living members of the Cave Canem clan put together. I think the\ninclination of all Urthlings was to ascribe this at least in part to the\nunconventional method by which it was originally programmed; it is in effect\na simplified bitmap of an actual person's mental synapses. And of course a\ngoodly portion of the regrets would accrue from the fact that the person\nsimulated was brain-fried to death by the process which mapped those\nsynapses.\n\nHowever, I notice a curious phenomenon near the end of \"Fifth Head\": Number\nFive writes that his robotic guards at the prison camp in the Tattered\nMountains would listen to his stories of Mr. Million and occasionally\nrespond by sneaking him gifts of sweets and extra food. How do the 'stalking\nmachines' fit into this scheme? On this evidence, they seem to have souls\nalso. Why? Is the software technology of those backwater worlds, on which\nreel-to-reel tape recorders are used * , so sophisticated that programmers\ncan give stalking robots artificial souls without \"simulation\"? Or is\n\"simulation\" perhaps commonly utilized as a programming shortcut by the\nauthorities and the powerful on a world where human life is cheaper than\ndirt, i.e. the 'stalking machines' are themselves simulations of some\nhapless condemned criminals or slaves? Could this explain occasional cases\nof robot guards going berserk, as Number Five relates?\n\nI have to wonder, too, if the submission of 'Number One' to\nsimulation-with-extreme-prejudice was, er, entirely voluntary? I get the\nimpression that this sort of simulation is done clandestinely, or at least\nin a very questionable manner, perhaps under the rubric of euthenasia. I\nsuppose these ten-nine unbound simulators and similar equipment are actually\nostensibly manufactured and sold with the \"understanding\" (wink, wink,\nnudge, nudge) that they will be programmed by perhaps less authentic and\nmore conventional and kludgy methods that don't involve killing the\nsimulatee. If true simulations by particle beam examination of the brain are\ndone in \"back alleys\", is it a stretch to suppose that this procedure might\nbe forced on a simulatee, perhaps in order to dispose of an inconvenient\npersonage while preserving useful memories?\n\nIf Maitre (Number Four) assassinated Number Two, is it unreasonable to\nsuppose that the scanning process, by which Mr. Million (Number Three) came\nto be, represented the assassination of Number One by Number Two? ** Mr.\nMillions' one allusion to the occasion, as related by Number Five (\"Until\ntoday I had always thought they lied\"), could possibly be construed as\nlingering bitterness.\n\n* Reel-to-reel?! aw come on! When 5HC was written, 8-track tape was in\nvogue! Now THAT would have been a hoot!\n** The person simulated by Mr. Million was by his admission Number Five's\n\"great grandfather\", which means two more generations of clones, Maitre, and\nhis father whom he killed, transpired. And, cf. Tante Jeannine's remark that\nthe simulator itself must be included in the \"count\" in order for Five to be\nthe correct number for the narrator.\n\nOn the subject of the Cave Canem \"family tree\", here's another IAQ: what was\nthe question \"Dr. Marsch\" was leading up to asking Maitre, referring to the\nprogenitor of the series of clones, which Number Five interrupted with his\ninsults about \"Marsch's\" supposed Annese origin?"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}