Words&Dirt

“Consciousness may reside in computers, networks of computers, even networks of computers and people.  The philosophers who hold this view aren’t fuzzy-minded New Agers or reactionary Cartesians or mystical poets like Teilhard himself; they are people who accept a basic premise of modern behavioral science––that all causality happens in the physical world––and who also appreciate the weirdness that emerges from this premise upon sustained contemplation.  Basically, their answer to the question ‘Could the giant global brain become conscious?’ is: We wouldn’t know if it were, and for all we know it is.”

––Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, by Robert Wright, pg. 308

“‘Today we will be dragoons, until we are told otherwise.’

‘Where are our horses, then?’

‘We must imagine them.’

‘Imaginary horses are much slower than the other kind.’

‘We need never mount up.  Dragoons are supposed to ride into battle, then dismount and fight in infantrymen,’ Barnes reminded him.  ‘We walked here, that much is true.  But that’s in the past.  Now it’s as if we have all just climbed out of our saddles.'”

––The Confusion, by Neal Stephenson, pg. 329