"Bruce Holland Rogers - Lifeboat On A Burning Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rogers Bruce Holland)

"Of course not. It's a good idea from the agent's perspective -- as he sees it,
he'd represent all of the virtual talent and practically own Hollywood. But it
sounds to me like a waste of resources."

"Good."

"I'm just pointing out that everybody who hears about what TOS can do will see
it in terms of meeting his or her own needs. The agent sees dead stars. You see
a stepping stone to immortality. I see a tool for making my own inquiries."

"What inquiries?"

"We've had that discussion." He pointed at his wall. "They've always had a
better handle on it than we have."

I looked where he was pointing, but just saw the usual time-lapse satellite
image of weather systems crossing the globe. Then I realized that something was
different. The display wasn't of the western hemisphere, but of the eastern.

Richardson picked up the statue on his desk. "Shiva," he said. "This arc of
flames that surrounds him is life and death. Flames for life. Spaces between the
flames for death. The one and the zero. Reincarnation."

For once it was my turn to be the skeptic. "You find that consoling? An
afterlife that can't be verified? It's superstition, Richardson."

"It's religion," he said, "and I don't have any more faith than you do that I'll
be reborn after I die. Maybe I don't disbelieve it as much as you do. Since it
can't be falsified, it's not subject to any scientific test. But as a metaphor,
I find it fascinating."

"What are you talking about?"

"Maas, what if you really knew death? What if you and death were intimate?"

"I still don't follow you."

"You're so interested in synthetic consciousness. What about synthesized death?
If you knew more about death, Maas, would you still have this unreasoning fear
of it?"

I snapped, "What do you mean, 'unreasoning'?"

"Forget it. I guess it's not your cup of tea. Why don't you think about this
instead: Could a TOS construct replace you?"

"Replace me?"

"The way we replaced Bierley. The Bierley construct works for us every bit as
well as the original did. So what about you? If I built a Maas construct, could