Is Agia a robot?

Jeff Wilson · 19 Jun 2010, 16:51 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:51:58 -0500
Subject: (urth) Is Agia a robot?
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On 6/19/2010 10:14 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> Good points. First, she's not proposed to be a "bot" in any usual sense,
> aside from having a metal head. And Agilus can lie, or maybe he doesn't
> even know what she is.

Here's a video of a pitcher getting beaned. Right after the crack of the 
bat, there's a *tok* of the ball-skull collision. IMO the bat's crack is 
sharper than the skull's *tok* , which is still sharper than the *thump* 
of meaty limbs being struck on the floor which doubtless we are all 
familiar with. The ball hits faster than Agia's head would have hit the 
wall, but the stone wall would be much more rigid than a baseball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auss-QFCor4&feature=PlayList&p=4C9AAD000C45EE30&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=18

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dy5gd2

I live in a fairly rural area, I suppose I could round up a cattle 
skull, put a wig on it, and record it smacking it into stone surface.

> Second, she may have something to hide, vs having modesty, although
> modesty could just as well be "programmed." For all I know, she has a
> penis.

This is modesty *after* she has been seen completely naked. And why 
would anyone program a sexbot to cast runic curses?

> Third, you are exactly right about Agia's character. Severian is a
> torturer; I propose that Agia is an assassin; Brunians proposes that she
> is a whore. His theory works better in some ways than mine.

I do not see that Agia is an assassin, her murders do not appear to 
serve anyone's purposes outside hers and her brothers.

> Fourth, the aureole is not of hair, but that's an interesting
> observation. More importantly, it covers the pair, not Agia. The two
> together are more than either of them individually.

Rereading about their "aureate faces" and "a narrow beam of sunlight 
that had given his head, and Agia's, an aureole a few moments before", 
it could be the dust and fibers from the straw on the floor, the way 
mist makes an aureole around the moon's sunlit face.

http://www.lpod.org/?p=702

or since "aureate" can also eman decorated with gold, there might be no 
actual fringe of light, but instead this would be another reference to 
their skin tone, which Sev has already likened to gold where the sun 
glints from Agia's skin through a rent in her ragged gown.

I'm not saying this doesn't count as a subtextual halo, of course.

> And if she's supposed to be a fully functional android, it would
> hardly do for her to go around boasting of her strength and her
> nuclear power cell.

That's not the same as a sexbot - "sleeping" immobile in a box is a 
strong advertisement that you are not really a person.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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