!!!
Thank you both, that's what had been bothering me.
From where I sit, the potential for sentience does not, in and of itself, imply the constant existance - or _rights_ - of same. When all of a boomer's blocks are working right, there is, quite literally, nothing there.
When a boomer is first booted up at the factory, the point where a sentient being would "wake up", those blocks are working. So there's nothing but a machine.
The precise order and sequence of how those blocks fail shapes the sort of mind that develops - if 'thought' goes first, followed some time later by 'control', you get Sylvie... Or Armstrong.
A boomer that loses 'control' first exhibits the same behavior as a combine harvester with no one at the helm - performing a given task unceasingly, independant of what it's doing it -to-.
Memory first? MALF-I/O ERROR BARF. Please return unit to depot for refund.
'Thought', then 'memory' isn't so bad - you have a mind in place that's already placed the data in storage, but it's aware... and it's hurting, given how the memory components were placed. It's when 'control' fails afterward that you have -real- problems.
As to Doug? He's wrong. But he's wrong in a way that's forcing the Sabers to take a second look at themselves and the way they view their lives.
What was bothering you, I think, and I know has been bothering me, was that the Sabers haven't yet had the time and mental 'togetherness' to answer Doug's charges in a satisfactory fashion.
Blessed be.
-n
(Well, except maybe "What else would you have me do?" which was just pure genius.)
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===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Thank you both, that's what had been bothering me.
From where I sit, the potential for sentience does not, in and of itself, imply the constant existance - or _rights_ - of same. When all of a boomer's blocks are working right, there is, quite literally, nothing there.
When a boomer is first booted up at the factory, the point where a sentient being would "wake up", those blocks are working. So there's nothing but a machine.
The precise order and sequence of how those blocks fail shapes the sort of mind that develops - if 'thought' goes first, followed some time later by 'control', you get Sylvie... Or Armstrong.
A boomer that loses 'control' first exhibits the same behavior as a combine harvester with no one at the helm - performing a given task unceasingly, independant of what it's doing it -to-.
Memory first? MALF-I/O ERROR BARF. Please return unit to depot for refund.
'Thought', then 'memory' isn't so bad - you have a mind in place that's already placed the data in storage, but it's aware... and it's hurting, given how the memory components were placed. It's when 'control' fails afterward that you have -real- problems.
As to Doug? He's wrong. But he's wrong in a way that's forcing the Sabers to take a second look at themselves and the way they view their lives.
What was bothering you, I think, and I know has been bothering me, was that the Sabers haven't yet had the time and mental 'togetherness' to answer Doug's charges in a satisfactory fashion.
Blessed be.
-n
(Well, except maybe "What else would you have me do?" which was just pure genius.)
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."