(urth) First Exodus theory revised

[António Pedro Marques]

Gerry Quinn wrote (11-02-2011 16:20):
>
> From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>> Gerry Quinn wrote (11-02-2011 13:43):
>>>
>>> From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>>>>> In fact he
>>>>> treated some people (such as Piaton) as robots. Maybe he treated
>>>>> almost
>>>>> everyone as robots, in fact - consider the whole possession technology
>>>>> for controlling them! Mamelta tells us how everyone was wired up in a
>>>>> sort of always-on internet, with Typhon's family wandering through
>>>>> their
>>>>> heads. That is before some of them were forced abourd the Whorl and
>>>>> given brain operations.
>>>>
>>>> Yep. It all sounds like blatant disregard for anyone else's feelings.
>>>> Why should he be concerned with the well-being of a computer program?
>>>
>>> Suppose we accept your argument that Typhon had a particular disdain for
>>> computer programs
>>
>> ? That's emphatically *not* what I said.
>
> Well, you started off by saying that computer programs are not people,
> and went on to say Typhon wouldn't have cared about Pas.

More or less, and how do you get from that to your 'had a particular disdain 
for' above?

> [By the way, I wasn't going to bring it up as I don't see the importance
> of the status of software to the issues under debate, but surely
> Scylla's appearance a a girl on the Red Sun Whorl indicates that
> computer programs can have souls? If so, I think it rather settles the
> issue of whether they are people (in the most general sense).

The only sense I raised it was in regard to Typhon's perspective.

>>> (though it makes it very odd that he had digitised
>>> versions of his family made to accompany Pas). What difference does it
>>> make to anything? Pas rules the Whorl, not Typhon.
>>
>> You're the one talking about Pas's intentions. I said that there is no
>> reason why *Typhon* should want Pas to possess a hypothetical heir of
>> Typhon.
>
> Well, I agree that Typhon probably wouldn't have been bothered to put
> embryonic heirs on the Whorl - but if he had done so, I am sure he would
> have left them in the charge of Pas (and Kypris if she were the mother).
> Who better to look after them? So if we want to know what Typhon wanted
> to happen with any such embryos, we should look at what Pas is doing.

Good point. 'Look after', though, isn't in any way similar to 'possess'.

(I wouldn't insist on Kypris being the mother, though I find it nice; but I 
do think Typhon is the father - besides telling us who Silk's father was, it 
also tells us who Typhon's heir was.)