{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3848",
    "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": 3848,
    "subject": "Alien Stones, the charts",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2003-02-11T16:28:11+00:00",
    "last": "2003-02-11T16:28:11+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0302-2928@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at siriusfiction.com"
      },
      "date": "2003-02-11T16:28:11+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Alien Stones, the charts",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Fernando Q. Gouvea wrote:\nOn re-reading \"Alien Stones\", I did find myself wondering about one thing:\nif the aliens are some form of artificial intelligence, why do they have\nstar charts that the captain can inspect? Wouldn't any such charts simply\nbe kept as software? Is this just a slip of Wolfe's imagination (Homer nods\nagain?) or is there something I'm missing?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hey, that book seminar sounds like a lot of fun!\n\nAs for the charts.  IIRC, the aliens are kinda sorta robotic rather than\n\"pure thought\" A.I. entities.\n\nPossible reasons for physical charts:\n\n1) It is good to have hardcopy!\n\n2) They might not be real tools, they might just be art objects recalling\nearlier times.\n\n3) They might just be toys for soft lifes to play with when they come\nvisiting, like the amusements in the waiting/screening room at a doctor's\noffice (magazines, toys).\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}