"Brian Plante - The Software Soul" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plante Brian)

aliens are intelligent enough to cross the gulf of space and visit Earth, that they must also be
God's children, whether they have knowledge of the Supreme Being or not. If they lack the
knowledge, humans can teach them. God can unite us all, alien and human. We must
embrace the aliens as our brethren and fear them not.
I am heartened that many of the new parishioners choose to receive Communion this
Sunday. Maybe God has brought the aliens here to help us rebuild our Church. If the aliens
can inspire faith in people and bring them back to us, then perhaps they are acting as a tool
of the Lord. I just wish the new parishioners did not all look so frightened.


On Saturday, I am disappointed that no real people show up for Reconciliation. I hope that a
few of the new parishioners I saw at Sunday Mass will come to confess, but only the usual
sims enter the booth, each one silent and still for a few minutes, posing for me like portraits
in a gallery. Why must we bother with these counterfeit confessions when there are no real
people to observe?
"Do you ever wonder what's going on in the real world?" I ask a female sim that sits
motionless before me in the booth. "I have heard that there are space aliens coming."
The sim is not programmed to do anything but wait in the confessional booth, and does
not respond. She has no soul, no life, no sins to confess.
Lord, send me a sinner.


None of the new parishioners are present at Mass on Sunday. Once again, the pews are
filled with the same old sims. There is no hesitation when it is time to sit or kneel; the
software congregation moves together in lockstep precision at every turn. No Elizabeths or
Bernadettes fumble around and look to their neighbors for direction.
I had composed a new welcoming sermon, hoping to have additional guests to greet
this day, but instead, I deliver a variation of a stock "sanctity of life" sermon I had used
dozens of times over the years. There is no point in wasting a new sermon on the sims.
Where are all the people this week? Perhaps the aliens have finally arrived and
everyone is busy…welcoming them. The arrival of intelligent beings from the stars would
surely change the world profoundly, but how? I need to speak to some real people. I pray
that they will return soon.
Several more Sundays pass, and the people still do not return to Mass or Reconciliation.
When I was a flesh-and-blood human priest, I might have lost hope by now, but I think my
programming will not allow me that failing. Perhaps I may one day teach the aliens about our
religion, introducing them to Our Lord, but what if they brought with them their own religion
and god? Maybe nobody comes to Mass anymore because the aliens' religion is more
alluring, their scripture more persuasive, their god more powerful. Perhaps I am the one who
needs to be taught.
Finally, a new persona appears at Sunday Mass, some ten weeks after I have last seen
a real person in attendance. It is a Simon persona, lurking in the back of the church. I say
"lurking" because he seems more interested in the details of the virtual building than the
ceremony I am conducting. Not only does the Simon not know the proper times to sit, stand,
and kneel during the Mass, he does not even make any attempt to imitate what the sims do
around him. Instead, he walks casually back and forth in the back row behind the pews,
inspecting the art and architecture, ignoring me and the Mass in progress.
It is unusual that he is a Simon. Nobody ever picks the Simon persona. The Simon has
an unusual arrangement of facial characteristics that most people find unattractive, and even
the most devout churchgoer does not wish to appear unattractive if he has a choice. It is an