Read Online Halo: First Strike by Eric S. Nylund - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Eric S. Nylund
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, adventure, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction - General, Fiction - Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction - Adventure, Space warfare, Human-alien encounters, Games, Outer Space, Imaginary wars and battles, computer games, Video & Electronic, Halo (Game)
Ads: Link
down." She
nodded to Horn, and they both stood and left.
Lizzie said, "You notice they held off on the heavy stuff
until the collective had cleared the screen."
Charley asked, "Do you want to call them on it? They're in
violation of the group's compact."
"No," she said. "I expected all that." She looked at Diana
and Gonzales and said, "Doctor Chow, your show."
"Thank you," Chow said. His voice was oddly high-pitched for
such a big man; Gonzales had been expecting something on the order
of a basso profundo. Chow said, "In the late twentieth century,
the idea emerged of a person's identity as something
transferrable. People spoke, in the idiom of the time, of
'downloading' a person." On the screen, where the IC had been,
appeared a cartoon drawing of a nude woman, her expression
stunned, the top of her skull covered with a metal cap. From the
cap a thick metal cable led to a large black cabinet faced with
arrays of blinking lights.
"Absurd," Chow said, and the woman disappeared. "To see why,
let us ask, what is a person? Is it a pure spirit, fluid in a jar
that one can decant into the proper container? Hardly. It is a
dynamic field made of thousands of disparate elements, held in a
loose sack of skin that perambulates the universe at large. And
of course it is perceptions, histories, possibilities, actions,
and the states and affects pertaining to all these.
"I can be found in the motion of my hand" He spread his
fingers like a magician about to materialize a coin or colored
scarf, and on the screen, the hand and its motion were doubled.
"And in my own perceptions of the handfor instance, from within,
through proprioceptors. And of course I see I." Chow turned and
held his hand in front of his face. He dropped his hand in a
chopping motion, and the screen cleared. "And I am that which
thinks about, talks about, and remembers the hand and has the
special relation of ownership to it. I am also the will to use
that hand." He held the hand in front of his face, made a
clenched fist. "So, to download even a portion of I would be to
download all these things and their entire somatic context.
"Also, of course, I am that which has my experiences, stored
as motor possibilities, recalled as memory, dream, manifest as
characteristic ways of being and knowing. To download I would
require duplicating this fluid chaos.
"Downloading the I thus becomes a most daunting task, perhaps
beyond even Aleph's capabilities. However, when cyborged to an
existing I, even one as damaged as Jerry Chapman, Aleph can create
a virtual person, one who functions as a human being, not a
disembodied intelligence, one who is capable of all the somatic
possibilities he had when healthy. The physical Jerry Chapman is
a shattered thing, but the Jerry Chapman latent in this hulk can
live."
Looking at Diana, Chow said, "We want you to share Jerry's
world. He must invest there, must experience other people and the
bonds of affection that engage us in this world. Otherwise he
will languish quickly; his neural maps will decay, and he will
die."
Gonzales easily followed that line of reasoning: monkey man
had to have other monkey men or women around or else go crazynot
an absolute rule, perhaps, but good in most circumstances.
Diana said, "Assuming that he becomes at home in this world,
what then? For how long can this simulated reality sustain him?"
The Aleph-figure spoke for the first time. It said, "I have
only conjectural answers to these questions but would prefer not
to entertain them right now. First we must rescue him from the
degenerative state he lives in and the certain death it entails."
"I understand that," Diana said. "That's why I am here, to
help in any fashion I can. It's just that I have questions."
Lizzie said, "And you'll get whatever answers Aleph wants to
give.
nodded to Horn, and they both stood and left.
Lizzie said, "You notice they held off on the heavy stuff
until the collective had cleared the screen."
Charley asked, "Do you want to call them on it? They're in
violation of the group's compact."
"No," she said. "I expected all that." She looked at Diana
and Gonzales and said, "Doctor Chow, your show."
"Thank you," Chow said. His voice was oddly high-pitched for
such a big man; Gonzales had been expecting something on the order
of a basso profundo. Chow said, "In the late twentieth century,
the idea emerged of a person's identity as something
transferrable. People spoke, in the idiom of the time, of
'downloading' a person." On the screen, where the IC had been,
appeared a cartoon drawing of a nude woman, her expression
stunned, the top of her skull covered with a metal cap. From the
cap a thick metal cable led to a large black cabinet faced with
arrays of blinking lights.
"Absurd," Chow said, and the woman disappeared. "To see why,
let us ask, what is a person? Is it a pure spirit, fluid in a jar
that one can decant into the proper container? Hardly. It is a
dynamic field made of thousands of disparate elements, held in a
loose sack of skin that perambulates the universe at large. And
of course it is perceptions, histories, possibilities, actions,
and the states and affects pertaining to all these.
"I can be found in the motion of my hand" He spread his
fingers like a magician about to materialize a coin or colored
scarf, and on the screen, the hand and its motion were doubled.
"And in my own perceptions of the handfor instance, from within,
through proprioceptors. And of course I see I." Chow turned and
held his hand in front of his face. He dropped his hand in a
chopping motion, and the screen cleared. "And I am that which
thinks about, talks about, and remembers the hand and has the
special relation of ownership to it. I am also the will to use
that hand." He held the hand in front of his face, made a
clenched fist. "So, to download even a portion of I would be to
download all these things and their entire somatic context.
"Also, of course, I am that which has my experiences, stored
as motor possibilities, recalled as memory, dream, manifest as
characteristic ways of being and knowing. To download I would
require duplicating this fluid chaos.
"Downloading the I thus becomes a most daunting task, perhaps
beyond even Aleph's capabilities. However, when cyborged to an
existing I, even one as damaged as Jerry Chapman, Aleph can create
a virtual person, one who functions as a human being, not a
disembodied intelligence, one who is capable of all the somatic
possibilities he had when healthy. The physical Jerry Chapman is
a shattered thing, but the Jerry Chapman latent in this hulk can
live."
Looking at Diana, Chow said, "We want you to share Jerry's
world. He must invest there, must experience other people and the
bonds of affection that engage us in this world. Otherwise he
will languish quickly; his neural maps will decay, and he will
die."
Gonzales easily followed that line of reasoning: monkey man
had to have other monkey men or women around or else go crazynot
an absolute rule, perhaps, but good in most circumstances.
Diana said, "Assuming that he becomes at home in this world,
what then? For how long can this simulated reality sustain him?"
The Aleph-figure spoke for the first time. It said, "I have
only conjectural answers to these questions but would prefer not
to entertain them right now. First we must rescue him from the
degenerative state he lives in and the certain death it entails."
"I understand that," Diana said. "That's why I am here, to
help in any fashion I can. It's just that I have questions."
Lizzie said, "And you'll get whatever answers Aleph wants to
give.
Similar Books
