From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Bio bias
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 08:53:29 -0700

> But I don't think that this means Wolfe thinks chems are less 
> persons than bios.  If the Outsider loves them as persons, then
> it doesn't matter if Silk himself thinks of them as mere machines.

Thank you ... 

In this context it might be worth considering the attitudes of 
that other great Catholic fantastist, J.R.R. Tolkien, on the subject;
in THE SILMARILLION, ... oh, dear, it's a bit complex, but to keep
it simple, let's say that there are these beings called the Valar who
are sort of godlike but are really angels of a high order, and that 
one of them, eager for the coming of Men and Elves, makes the Dwarves
so he can have people to love and teach and care for. God (who is 
never called that in the Silm., but is clearly the Christian God)
comes and says, Yo, what have you done? And the Vala realizes that
he's overstepped his boundaries and apologizes and goes to destroy
his handiwork and God says, No, wait, see how they cringe from your
hammer? I've given them free will -- they are the children of my 
adoption. 

And that, I think, is a precise analogy of the condition of the chems
in the SUN books: humans did not create machines with souls; they 
created machines with the capacity for souls, and God (the Outsider,
the Increate) ensouled them: after which, they were people.

--Dan'l


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