Sleep Beckons Me To Blog
I have reached the point of the night when Iain Banks words are beginning to melt together into one amorphous blob of text so I had better stop reading Look to Windward and try to get some sleep. I regret not being able to finish this book because, echoing Alden, Banks has introduced many ideas that seem to be part of a larger recurring theme throughout our class.
I could not help but think back to our discussion about what it truly means to be human during the "He, She, and It" class from Banks use of artifical bodies and the very fact that Admiral General Huyler died, had his soul uploaded into a ship's computer memory bank, and finally shared the same visual and sensory perceptions of Quilan when he was uploaded again into Quil's brain. Even though the conscience, or at least the memories of these individuals exist digitally, is that enough to call them human or Chelgrian? This also brings us back to our orginal discussion about what we actually need to be able to define in order to indentify someone as human or sentient. If you go primarily off Huyler's ability to make witty, sarcastic remarks about the Culture or Teresono's changing aura, then perhaps you can them sentient.
But however, from my spoiled perspective of actually having a body of my own, I would have to say they are not truly human are whatever their species is because the "human experience" in my mind involves feeling the pain of not only emotional but also physical wounds. It involves having to constnatly battle with our own mortality and trying to make the most out of the time that is given to you. In this sense, I would say none of them are human, and I truly feel sorry for them because they will never have the full experience.
I could not help but think back to our discussion about what it truly means to be human during the "He, She, and It" class from Banks use of artifical bodies and the very fact that Admiral General Huyler died, had his soul uploaded into a ship's computer memory bank, and finally shared the same visual and sensory perceptions of Quilan when he was uploaded again into Quil's brain. Even though the conscience, or at least the memories of these individuals exist digitally, is that enough to call them human or Chelgrian? This also brings us back to our orginal discussion about what we actually need to be able to define in order to indentify someone as human or sentient. If you go primarily off Huyler's ability to make witty, sarcastic remarks about the Culture or Teresono's changing aura, then perhaps you can them sentient.
But however, from my spoiled perspective of actually having a body of my own, I would have to say they are not truly human are whatever their species is because the "human experience" in my mind involves feeling the pain of not only emotional but also physical wounds. It involves having to constnatly battle with our own mortality and trying to make the most out of the time that is given to you. In this sense, I would say none of them are human, and I truly feel sorry for them because they will never have the full experience.