From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utzoo!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!utcsri!rutgers!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!minsky Thu Oct  8 10:10:31 EDT 1992
Article 7051 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: unpublished chapters of "The Turing Option"
Message-ID: <1992Sep28.174024.15814@news.media.mit.edu>
Date: 28 Sep 92 17:40:24 GMT
References: <1992Sep25.203827.17312@news.media.mit.edu> <1992Sep28.143838.5772@hawk.cs.ukans.edu>
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In article <1992Sep28.143838.5772@hawk.cs.ukans.edu> spratt@hawk.cs.ukans.edu (Lindsey Spratt) writes:
>Gregory Benford's "Tides of Light" also seems to make extensive use
>of the ideas in  your "Society of Mind", Marvin. Have you seen it?
>What do you think of the adaptation of your ideas?
>
>	-lindsey

I like Benford's work very much.  In "Tides of Light" he envisions a
future in which it is possible to download a copy of an "aspect" of a
person's personality/knowledge base -- and then implant a litle
computer in another person's brain.  Makes a good story.  AT this
stage, Benford has wisely sidestepped the problem of how to integrate
someone else's knowledge with your own knowledge.  He does this by
connecting the output of the "aspects" to the owner's sensory systems
so that the owner simply hears and sees displays presented by the
implant. So it isn't very much part of your mind -- at least at first.

Benford is letting me read the unfinished draft of a sequel to this.
It has a good deal more detail about how these "aspects" might
function.

Vernor Vinge's new novel, "A Fire Upon the Deep" also discusses the
problem of merging several sub-personalities.  One of the alien
cultures consists of five-tuples of such units, and the novel
discusses what might happen when some of them die and need to be
replaced.  Usually the remaining group has serious trouble.  I haven't
finished this really fine book, but so far, every page has some new
ideas.


