S&S vs. SF in BotNS

David Stockhoff · 22 Dec 2011, 17:36 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:36:51 -0500
Subject: (urth) S&S vs. SF in BotNS
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On 12/22/2011 11:47 AM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>>>>> The soul is the underlying principle which gives life to both body and
>>>>> mind.
>>>> And in chems?  Or Whorl gods?
>>> Precisely.
>> The trouble is, I am finding it hard to tell what you are apparently being
>> so precise about.
> Would that I had the humility to have such candor about my ignorance
> and/or misunderstanding!
>
> I am suggesting -- no, I am _saying_ that the soul is precisely the
> same thing in chems and Whorl gods, and that the soul is personally
> and directly created by God (or, if you will, the Outsider)
> irrespective of whether the body is produced by biology or technology.
> That is, if a being is ensoulled, it is ensoulled by God.
>
> Thus, when Typhon uploads his memories as Pas, his soul does not
> travel with them. If Pas has a soul, it is a new soul created by God.
>

Face it, despite the theology, souls are not things we can pin down with 
certainty. Famously, cows were judged to have souls in the Middle Ages, 
but are no longer considered to have them. Science changes its mind too, 
but in this case presumably the Church changed its mind.

I don't know the difference between a cow and a robot, but the 
interchangeability of characters in the Sun Cycle pretty clearly 
requires that all characters be constructed in the same manner. If one 
has a mind and a soul, so do all.

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