Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 12:16:25 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) Silk-23 skidoo

Adam quoted me and wrote:
>> Anyway.  My position has been that Silk-43 brain-data was erased from the
>> 43-year-old Silk body; Horn brain-data was downloaded via the Neighbors
>> (by-passing the whole monitor mechanism); later on, Silk-23 brain-data was
>> transferred from Pig to Horn-in-Silk via the eye and the monitor.
>
>I've stated my objections to this view before, so I won't repeat myself.
>But it just occurred to me that this position is also incompatible with the
>view (which seems to be the majority view) that it's Silk-in-Horn that
>impels Horn to donate an eye to Pig so that Silk-in-Pig can be uploaded into
>Mainframe, even at the apparent price of his mission's failure.  What is
>your view of Horn's motive?

I'm confused by the term "Silk-in-Horn" in this context.  I would say, in
this case and this reading, that it is "Horn-in-Silk" who is still
quixotically looking for "Silk" (quixotic because the Silk he is looking
for is a character in a book that Horn wrote).

So it is Horn who makes the eye-sacrifice in order to get Silk-in-Pig out
of Pig and into the Silk body.  I don't see much rhyme or reason in getting
Silk-in-Pig back into Mainframe, fwiw, but maybe I'm forgetting something
-- did Silk-in-Pig have some important news to report in VR person?

Horn would make the sacrifice in order to complete his mission. But in
spite of  his sacrifice, the narrator feels he has failed -- because he
doesn't have the Silk he came to get (whether it is because Silk-in-Pig
went into Mainframe instead of into Silk, or because the real Silk Horn has
[Silk-43, Silk-23, or both or neither] does not measure up to the literary
Silk that Horn and everybody else on Blue is expecting).  (I agree I can't
follow the motivation of what you have described.)

About the scan I'm calling Silk-23.  Yes, it might have some Pas elements
added to it, but since I don't recall any non-Silk details that would be
positively Pas-like (for example, it seems to me that Pas would love to be
a ruler and would never walk away from such a role; polygamy would be a
fine thing; etc.), well.  Calling it Passilk seems a bit heavy on the Pas
side, but if that helps people grasp the concept, it could be useful.

As for when the scan was taken: I thought it was taken from the pool in the
hotel, a very happy time (perhaps the happiest moment in Silk's life), not
onboard the airship.  But again, I could be wrong.

=mantis=


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