Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes, by Tom Crosshill

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.

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