Johnathan Corgan writes:
> As I'm sure many on the list are familiar, David Brin's "Kiln People" is
> an interesting science fiction treatment of similar issues.
It is an interesting story which helps to make some of our philosophical
thought experiments more concrete. Making copies, destroying them, the
nondeterministic experience of wondering whether you will become the copy
or the original, all are addressed. However I found much to dislike in
the way Brin answers these questions. I wrote a review at
http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/th/more/285/ . An excerpt:
"I was shocked and disgusted to see that [Brin] presents the golems as
having no human rights whatsoever. They are property, nothing more.
They have to step to the back of the bus, get out of the way of the
white, excuse me, human massas, put up with whatever humans want to do
to them. This shocking recreation of the worst abuses of the slavery
era is presented without much explanation by Brin, or much sensitivity
to the horrific history he is echoing..."
Hal Finney
Received on Mon Jun 06 2005 - 13:56:09 PDT