Re: David Gerrold - War with the Cthorr

In article <ud4n08dum.fsf@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Ray Blaak <rAYblaaK@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said:

> No, no, no. The *real* question is, do you have the guts to step
> into a tele****ter that works by matter disassembly/reassembly?
>
> I don't. What if there's a bug? Make a copy of me is fine, but
> leave this one working, thank you very much.

Ah, well "Is this procedure guaranteed to produce Result X?" is an
entirely separate question from "What will Result X _mean_ to me?"

> Even if the copy is in all measurable ways exactly like me, all
> that means is that there are now two people who don't want to step
> into a tele****ter.

I think the effect on your lives might be a bit larger than that. :-)

As for me, if the glitch rate was something that I could live with --
I think that in Iain M. Banks' LOOK TO WINDWARD, when a fleshy
person had to get from Point A to Point B quickly, the Mind in
charge of the Orbital offered a tele****tation method which had a
statistical failure rate of one in ten to the 23rd or something like
that, and the person was more than willing to take that "risk" --
then sure I'd use it.  (Subject to a requirement that it not _hurt_
or anything like that, of course.)

As I've said before, you'd (the generic 'you', not you personally)
have to demonstrate to me that I'd _lose_ something in the procedure
before I'd decline to use it.

-- 
William December Starr <wdstarr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>