Re: David Gerrold - War with the Cthorr

In article <g0t0tp$ki0$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
William December Starr <wdstarr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>In article <g0so21$dil$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>mchary@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Michael Alan Chary) said:
>
>[ to Wayne Throop ]
>
>> Well, how about if you murder Samantha.  Upon being charged with
>> the crime, you reveal yourself to be Dr. Thaddeus Sivana,
>> Soooooper Genius, and you produce a duplicate of Samantha
>> identical in every respect to the Samantha *immediately* prior to
>> the instant of death except that this Samantha is made of
>> particles taken from the atmosphere other Lexor.  Do you still
>> face the chair?
>
>If "*immediately*" is taken literally -- meaning, I suppose, that
>only single Planck-Wheeler intervals pass between (a) "snapshot of
>living Samantha is taken," (b) "Samantha is struck by effects of
>weapon" and (c) "Samantha is dead," and then the snapshot from (a)
>is used to reconstruct Samantha -- then _I_ would say that no
>homicide has occurred[*1].  Various societies' legal systems may
>feel otherwise, of course.

Interesting theory. I invite you to argue it out with her family's estate 
lawyers depending on how wealthy she is.

How about not immediately? How about a second? Two seconds? A minute? An 
hour? (Roger Zelazny's _Isle of the Dead_ used this sort of things as a 
plot point, actually.)

>
> *1: _Other_ crimes or torts may have been committed with Samantha
>     as the victim, of course, and they may be ones that don't exist
>     yet in any real-world legal system because the cir***stances
>     have never arisen, but I don't think that she has been killed.

Well, then for her there is no difference. Are you willing try it 
yourself should the occasion arise? (As Larry Niven once said, "I'm not 
going to ride in one of the damned things.")
-- 
The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons!
http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons