Home Fires questions

David Stockhoff · 25 Oct 2011, 00:30 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:30:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) Home Fires questions
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On 10/24/2011 7:22 PM, Matthew Keeley wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:stephenhoy at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     None of these possibilities gains much traction because we have
>     almost no information about the nature of the Os. The most
>     revealing info comes from a discussion of spying in Ch 2, "I can't
>     imagine how a human being could spy on the Os." "Electronically."
>
>
> I can see three ways of reading that:
>
> a) Spying has to be electronic because the Os are non-organic or 
> robotic (Os as OS as operating system?)
> b) The Os don't at all resemble humans and therefore no human spy 
> could infiltrate an Os organization, so electronic reconnaissance is 
> the only option.
> c) The Os communicate non-verbally; perhaps there are telepathic 
> communications that might be electronically intercepted?
>
> a) would seem to presuppose another race behind the Os. None of these 
> three options rule out the other two from also being true.
>
> -Matt

Conversely, the Os spy on humans. Either they are traitors or they 
simply allow themselves to be ridden, or both. I'm guessing they can't 
just take over.

Thanks to the pun you point out in in "a" and Wolfe's history of 
imagining telepathic robot civilizations, I'd go for all three. 
Presumably telepathy and wireless communications are not far apart.

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