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

"But you're his memories?" asked a reporter.

"Not in the sense that you mean it," Bierley said. "Nobody dumped Bierley's mind
into a machine. We can't do that." Dramatic pause. "Yet." Smile. "What I am is a
personality construct of other people's memories. Over one hundred of Bierley's
closest associates were interviewed by TOS. Their impressions of Bierley,
specific examples of things he had said and done, along with digital recordings
of the man in action, were processed to create me. I may not be Jackson Bierley
as he saw himself, but I'm Jackson Bierley as he was seen by others."

Bierley chose another reporter by name.

The reporter looked around herself, then at the screen. "Can you see me?" she
said. "Can you see this room?"

"There's a micro camera," said the image, "top and center of this display panel.
Really, though --" he flashed the grandfatherly Bierley smile "-- that's a
wasted question. You must have had a harder one in mind."

"Just this," she said. "Are you self-aware?"

"I certainly seem to be, don't I?" said the image. "There's liable to be some
debate about that. I'm no expert, so I'll leave the final answer up to Doctors
Maas and Richardson. But my opinion is that, no, I am not self-aware."

A ripple of laughter from the reporters who appreciated paradox.

"How do we know," said a man who hadn't laughed, "that this isn't some kind of
fake?"

"How do you know I'm not some incredibly talented actor who's wearing
undetectable makeup and who studied Jackson Bierley's every move for years in
order to be this convincing?" Undetectably, unless you were looking for it,
Bierley's pupils dilated a bit, and the effect was to broadcast warmth and
openness. We had seen the real Bierley do that in recorded addresses. "I guess
you have to make up your own mind."

Then he blinked. He smiled. Jackson Bierley didn't intend to make a fool of
anyone, not even a rude reporter.

"What does Bierley's family think of all this?" asked someone else.

"You could ask them. I can tell you that they cooperated -- they were among
those interviewed by TOS. They have me back to an extent. I'll be here to meet
those great-great grandchildren I so longed to greet one day. Unfortunately . .
." and suddenly he looked sad. "Unfortunately, those kids will know Bierley, but
Bierley won't know them. Only much more research can hold out the promise that
one day, a construct like me really will be self-aware, will remember, will be
the man or woman whose life he or she extends into eternity."