Uploading the personality to a computer so we would "live" there is really done, from an SF perspective, but as it gets closer it's good to have more on it. What kind of "life" would we have as simulations in a computer? On the one hand we have modern philosophy embracing ourselves as truly, inevitably embodied--our wills and personalities floating on our hormones and metabolism. On the other hand, a Buddhist might say we wouldn't change much at all. Continuity of identity is an illusion, therefore we would be no more and no less conscious of "ourselves" as simulacra than as embodied beings.
Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes doesn't really speculate that far, but it is a good story on the topic. How we ourselves are so different as projections by someone else. When others love us, who do they love? Their picture of us. So this is how love is blind. Fun to read, and think about. 3 stars.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Like many I think this book is stronger in concept than in execution. The Long Earth is a cool idea--that alternate versions of Earth are av...
-
The introduction to Slow Tuesday Night is by Gardner Dozios, the great editor, and he tells us that "only those stories that were the ...
-
A short story this time-- Younger Women , a World Fantasy 2011 nominee in the short story category. Short stories really have to bowl me ov...
-
There are some interesting theories out there on what Gene Wolfe's "The Ziggurat" short story means . Indeed, Wolfe is heavil...
No comments:
Post a Comment