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"Category error, " Nim said. "You're abstracting 'soul' out of Agents. That's
like trying to go from atoms to cows in one jump. "
"That's the kind of leap this sim makes. "
"You want to understand a cow, you don't look for cow-atoms. "
"Right, you go for the 'emergent property. ' Standard theory. "
"This sim is predictable, buddy. Remember that. You tailor him until he's got
no nonlinear elements you can't contain. "
Marq nodded. "He's... different. So powerful. "
"He got simmed for a reason, way back in the Dark Ages somewhere. Did you
expect a doormat? One who wouldn't give you a hard time? You represent
authority which he battled all his life. "
Marq ran fingers through his wavy hair. "Sure, if I find a nonlinear
constellation I can't abstract out "
" call it a will or a soul and delete it. " Nim slapped the table hard, making
a woman nearby give them a startled glance.
Marq gave him a mocking, skeptical look. "The system isn't completely
predictable. "
"So you launch a pattern-sniffer. Back-trace on it. Stitch in sub-Agents,
handcuff any personas you can't fix. Hey, you invented those cognitive
constraint algorithms. You're the best. "
Marq nodded. And what if it's like cutting into a brain in search of
consciousness? He took a deep breath and exhaled toward the domed ceiling,
where a mindless entertainment played, presumably for those conked off on
stiff. "Anyway, it's not just him. " Marq met Nim's eyes. "I rigged Sybyl's
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office. I eavesdrop on her meetings with Boker. "
Nim slapped him on the shoulder. "Good for you!"
Marq laughed. A buddy sticks with you, even if you're having a stupid-storm.
"That isn't all. "
Nim leaned forward, boyishly curious.
"I think I went too far, " Marq said.
"You got caught!"
"No, no. You know how Sybyl is. She doesn't suspect intrigue from enemies,
much less friends. "
"Maneuvering isn't her strong suit. "
"I'm not sure it's mine, either, " Marq said.
"Ummm. " Nim gave him a shrewd look, eyes half-closed. "So... what else did
you do?"
Marq sighed. "I updated Voltaire. Gave him cross-learning programs to flesh
out his deep conflicts, help him reconcile them. "
Nim's eyes widened. "Risky. "
"I wanted to see what a mind like that could do. When will I get another
chance?"
"How do you feel about it, though?"
Marq chuffed Nim on the shoulder to hide his embarrassment.
"Kinda rotten. Sybyl and I both agreed not to do it. "
"Faith doesn't need to be too smart. "
"I thought of that excuse, too. "
"What's that guy Seldon think of all this?"
"We... haven't told him. "
"Ah. "
"He wants it that way! Keeps his hands clean. "
Nim nodded. "Look buddy, deed's done. How did the sim take it?"
"Jolted him. Big oscillations on the neural nets. "
"Okay now, though?"
"Seems so. I think he's reintegrated. "
"Does your client know?"
"Yes. The Skeptics are all for it. I foresee no problem there. "
"You're doing real research on this one, " Nim said. "Good for the field.
Important. "
"So how come I feel like having maybe a dozen or so sniffs?" He jerked a thumb
at the moron movie on the ceiling. "So that I'll loll back and think that's
ter-rif stuff?"
13.
"Now pay attention, " Voltaire said when the scientist at last answered his
call. "Carefully. "
He cleared his throat, flung out his arms, and readied himself to declaim the
brilliant arguments he'd detailed, all shaped in another lettre.
The scientist's eyes were slits, his face pale. Voltaire was irked. "Don't you
want to hear?"
"Hangover. "
"You've discovered a single general theory explaining why the universe, so
vast, is the only possible one, its forces all exact and have no cure for
hangover?"
"Not my area, " he said raggedly. "Ask a physicist. "
Voltaire clicked heels, then bowed in the Prussian way he'd learned at
Frederick the Great's court. (Though he had always muttered to himself. German
puppets', as he did so. ) "The doctrine of a soul depends on the idea of a
fixed and immutable self. No evidence supports the notion of a stable 'I, ' an
essential ego-entity King beyond each individual existence "
True, " said the scientist, "though odd, coming from you. "
"Don't interrupt! Now, how can we explain the stubborn illusion of a fixed
self or soul? Through five functions themselves conceptual processes and not
fixed elements. First, all beings possess physical, material qualities, which
change so slowly that they appear to be fixed, but which are actually in
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constant material flux. "
"The soul's supposed to outlast those. " The scientist pinched the bridge of
his nose between thumb and forefinger.
"No interruptions. Second, there is the illusion of a fixed emotional makeup,
when actually feelings as even that rude
playwright Shakespeare pointed out wax and wane as inconstantly as the moon.
They, too, are in constant flux, though no doubt these motions, just like the
moon's, obey physical laws. "
"Hey, wait. That stuff earlier, about the theory of the universe did you know
that back in those Dark Ages?"
"I deduced it from the augmentations you gave me. "
The man blinked, obviously impressed. "I... hadn't anticipated... "
Voltaire suppressed his irritation. Any audience, even one that insisted on
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