First Exodus theory revised

António Pedro Marques · 11 Feb 2011, 11:21 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:21:54 +0000
Subject: (urth) First Exodus theory revised
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Gerry Quinn wrote (11-02-2011 03:18):
>
> From: "Ant?nio Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>> > From: "Ant?nio Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>
>> >> I should again point out that regardless of Pas having been scanned
>> >> from Typhon, all he is is a computer program. Pas is Typhon's tool and
>> >> in all likelihood Typhon doesn't care one bit about Pas as long as Pas
>> >> fulfills his role. He should care more about his heir(s), who is/are
>> >> (a) real person(s). So Pas is there to serve Silk, not the opposite,
>> >> and Silk is either a true heir or a tenant (for Typhon, not Pas).
>>
>> > Computer programs are real people in this story (and in most of Wolfe's
>> > work).
>
>> Not really. Robots are people, and you could *argue* that means the
>> software running them is people. But all over, 'real people' don't
>> consider robots 'real people'. Silk does because he's Silk. Typhon
>> doesn't.
>
> I don't agree with you there. Most people in Viron seem to consider both
> the gods and the chems real people. Taluses probably less so, I suppose.
> Black mechanics may disagree, but they are few and are breaking the law.

The need for Silk to explicitly say that chems are people (iinm when he's 
arguing that taluses are people also) suggests to me that that's not a 
deeply held view. You know how even in our own whorl some folks historically 
- and some even today! - haven't considered certain of their fellow human 
beings as real people. The Ayuntamiento had no qualms about taking over a 
few. Nor could Maytera Rose certainly be isolated in her view of chems - if 
anything it seems that as technology and thw whorl broke down their social 
standing improved.

> Pas is the god of the chems.

But then again Psyche is the goddess of butterflies.
But then again Typhon isn't Pas. Pas is a much nicer fellow.

> I don't recall Typhon himself expressing any views on robots.

I knew that when I wrote what I wrote. But given that Typhon doesn't seem to 
care about anyone but himself, is it a stretch to think he doesn't care 
about a computer program? (Given, it's a program that mirrors his own mind, 
and in that sense it could be argued that he should care about something 
that came from him - but does he care about his sperm?)

Also notice that the chems were put aboard the whorl as slaves - destined to 
work for the humans without compensation or to die in battle. They weren't 
even given individuality - all were packed with the same clothing.

> In fact he
> treated some people (such as Piaton) as robots. Maybe he treated almost
> everyone as robots, in fact - consider the whole possession technology
> for controlling them! Mamelta tells us how everyone was wired up in a
> sort of always-on internet, with Typhon's family wandering through their
> heads. That is before some of them were forced abourd the Whorl and
> given brain operations.

Yep. It all sounds like blatant disregard for anyone else's feelings. Why 
should he be concerned with the well-being of a computer program?

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