# Take The red pill *The Urth list — 3 messages, 2 voices, 01 Sep 2010* > 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. --- ### Lee Berman *01 Sep 2010, 19:27* David Stockhoff's question about why Typhon didn't just upload himself into Piaton's brain put a funny thought into my head. James Wynn's question: > Suddenly, it's as though Remora and Xiphias vanished into smoke. Anyone have a > theory about what happened here? added enough fuel to the fire to get me to put the thought into writing. It is such an obvious idea, post-Matrix era. I have to guess someone has thought of it before though I haven't seen it. Is it possible that it isn't just the gods who are uploaded to Mainframe on the Whorl? Could all the dirt and rock and air and cities and wars of the Whorl be electronic illusions for its electronic inhabitants? It would allow people to disappear easily (like Matrix agents). If the humans in question didn't really have brains made of proteins, fats and electrolytes but were, instead, computer programs it would explain why electronic gods can possess human beings so effortlessly (like Matrix agents). It would explain how humans in The Whorl can suddenly gain new powers and abilities (like Neo in The Matrix). The story was written well before The Matrix came out so it wouldn't have been a hackneyed idea at the time. We see human personality downloaded into electronic beings of the prosimian Ayuntamiento family. That could be a clue to what is really going on in the entire Whorl. Is it possible that going down to Blue is something like taking the red pill in The Matrix- one's psyche and consciousness gets put into a fleshly human body again. Not sure how that fits into returning to The Whorl. Well, my familiarity with Long/ Short Sun isn't so great, so I'd be interested in the opinions of others. --- ### James Wynn *01 Sep 2010, 19:33 · in reply to Lee Berman* > Lee - Is it possible that going down to Blue is something like taking the red pill in > The Matrix- one's psyche and consciousness gets put into a fleshly human body again. > Not sure how that fits into returning to The Whorl. Well, my familiarity with Long/ > Short Sun isn't so great, so I'd be interested in the opinions of others. I'm not sure how this would makes sense, from a story-telling perspective unless it were revealed somehow. Why have sleepers? Why have embryos? Why have a Plan? u+16b9 --- ### Lee Berman *01 Sep 2010, 22:12 · follows James Wynn* > James wynn- I'm not sure how this would makes sense, from a story-telling > perspective unless it were revealed somehow. Why have sleepers? Why have > embryos? Why have a Plan? Well, this isn't a fully formed theory, just an idea I had today. I assumed all here have seen The Matrix, but if not I apologize. The purpose of the Plan would be the same as the purpose of the Matrix. Human minds, even in electronic form, need exercise, socializing, problems and concerns religion, morality and guidance, just as biological minds do. In the Matrix, the sleepers have the purpose of being an energy source for the ruling computer. In the Whorl it would seem their purpose is to have bodies for the electronic personalities to be downloaded into, so they can go down to the target planets and live there. What we need to dismiss this theory are views of The Whorl from outside the Whorl. Do we have any? If the Whorl was really just a big computer memory ship carrying sleeper bodies it would look a lot smaller from the outside than the electronic interior illusion created for Whorl residents with lakes and flyers in the sky and towns all around. Well, no sense starting a big discussion about it. I'm certainly not prepared or interested in defending this idea. But I might keep it in mind on my next reading. You never know... ---