Quick! Tell her she has it wrong – it’s not her putting your lives in danger, it’s you running headlong to meet The-Beast-Who-Eats-Us of your own free wills! If necessary, tell her you simply can’t bear to see the Beast go hungry. She might let you go out of sympathy.
irisclara
Even a failed experiment produces knowledge.
ERIC SCHLIEPER
2-2-2-2-2-2
You’d think the mice in the fancy hats would be keeping an eye of these two.
If only to learn how NOT to deal with the Hoomans….
Coyoty
The mice in the fancy hats SENT these two.
Coyoty
“I couldn’t put you in danger. You seem like such nice mice.”
“Rats.”
“I thought you were mice.”
Flyswatter
I’m suddenly interested in learning if/how the mice on the Strib ship have evolved differently than these. This could throw (yet another) wrench into things.
Efogoto
The mice are fabricated and cannot breed, so they have not evolved. The question is then, did the Strib ship’s computer come up with its own version of mice, or did it get the pattern from the computer on Nogg’s ship? Ruddock has been captain of both and may have asked the Strib ship to get the pattern from Nogg’s ship, which surely it would have done to oblige such an engaging coyote, or he could have let each come up with their own mice. It isn’t clear to me which way Ruddock went when he he made the request, so it will no doubt come down to whichever is funniest.
Pete Rogan
The question of a template exposes another unanswered question: Where did the decision to leave the robot mice genderless come from? The template? A machine rule deep in the food synth’s programming? A logical outcome because the food synth is the source of all robot mice, and they don’t need to reproduce?
In that case… where did the decision to allow consciousness to go into their matrix come? Is that another accident, a logic error, or is consciousness so cheap it’s given away with every complete synth organism? And the ability to develop language, which requires brains of a particular level of sophistication to even entertain the concepts of manipulation of symbols and concepts and their expression in comprehensible form. Which implies that the entire species has the capability to develop other sophisticated traits and abilities of so-called ‘higher’ animals.
Why can’t the robot mice build, in time, their own food synth that can produce babies for them to raise? And from that, why can’t they build a food synth capable of replicating their God — Ruddock. Or humans, for that matter.
I don’t see insurmountable barriers here to any of this. If they have the capability to learn, they’ll develop the skills and scope of other conscious races. In which case, as I stated earlier, their only limits are not ethical, but political. A question of what they are permitted to do, and who has the power to stop them. The insertion of somebody’s idea of justice. And likely not the robot mice concept, either.
Got to go. Liquor store closes any time!
Coyoty
Ruddock requested robot mice. Robots are intelligent. Therefore, the food synth provided intelligent mice.
Pete Rogan
e.g., machine rule. Do we know what the food synth CAN’T produce, then?
Besides furryite burgers, I mean. Tragic failure.
tlhonmey
It seems to be a rule of this universe that sapience is automatically granted to any animate creation where the granting of such sapience would be horrifically cruel. It’s probably nothing to do with the food synth specifically and more to do with the divine master of this universe having either a sick, twisted sense of humor or total indifference to the long-term implications of his little practical jokes.
They do not have to be incapable of reproducing: the mouse on the SpaceTrawler could all be (for instance) MALE. And if the ones on the Strib’s ship happened to be FEMALE, if they do manage to get together, expect a new ruling species to take over the Strib’s planet…
Efogoto
😀
Demarquis
It’s the battle of the overly-cute self-aware yet secretly selfish and manipulative small mammals for all time! Let the games begin!
Quick! Tell her she has it wrong – it’s not her putting your lives in danger, it’s you running headlong to meet The-Beast-Who-Eats-Us of your own free wills! If necessary, tell her you simply can’t bear to see the Beast go hungry. She might let you go out of sympathy.
Even a failed experiment produces knowledge.
2-2-2-2-2-2
You’d think the mice in the fancy hats would be keeping an eye of these two.
If only to learn how NOT to deal with the Hoomans….
The mice in the fancy hats SENT these two.
“I couldn’t put you in danger. You seem like such nice mice.”
“Rats.”
“I thought you were mice.”
I’m suddenly interested in learning if/how the mice on the Strib ship have evolved differently than these. This could throw (yet another) wrench into things.
The mice are fabricated and cannot breed, so they have not evolved. The question is then, did the Strib ship’s computer come up with its own version of mice, or did it get the pattern from the computer on Nogg’s ship? Ruddock has been captain of both and may have asked the Strib ship to get the pattern from Nogg’s ship, which surely it would have done to oblige such an engaging coyote, or he could have let each come up with their own mice. It isn’t clear to me which way Ruddock went when he he made the request, so it will no doubt come down to whichever is funniest.
The question of a template exposes another unanswered question: Where did the decision to leave the robot mice genderless come from? The template? A machine rule deep in the food synth’s programming? A logical outcome because the food synth is the source of all robot mice, and they don’t need to reproduce?
In that case… where did the decision to allow consciousness to go into their matrix come? Is that another accident, a logic error, or is consciousness so cheap it’s given away with every complete synth organism? And the ability to develop language, which requires brains of a particular level of sophistication to even entertain the concepts of manipulation of symbols and concepts and their expression in comprehensible form. Which implies that the entire species has the capability to develop other sophisticated traits and abilities of so-called ‘higher’ animals.
Why can’t the robot mice build, in time, their own food synth that can produce babies for them to raise? And from that, why can’t they build a food synth capable of replicating their God — Ruddock. Or humans, for that matter.
I don’t see insurmountable barriers here to any of this. If they have the capability to learn, they’ll develop the skills and scope of other conscious races. In which case, as I stated earlier, their only limits are not ethical, but political. A question of what they are permitted to do, and who has the power to stop them. The insertion of somebody’s idea of justice. And likely not the robot mice concept, either.
Got to go. Liquor store closes any time!
Ruddock requested robot mice. Robots are intelligent. Therefore, the food synth provided intelligent mice.
e.g., machine rule. Do we know what the food synth CAN’T produce, then?
Besides furryite burgers, I mean. Tragic failure.
It seems to be a rule of this universe that sapience is automatically granted to any animate creation where the granting of such sapience would be horrifically cruel. It’s probably nothing to do with the food synth specifically and more to do with the divine master of this universe having either a sick, twisted sense of humor or total indifference to the long-term implications of his little practical jokes.
I take that as the highest compliment.
They do not have to be incapable of reproducing: the mouse on the SpaceTrawler could all be (for instance) MALE. And if the ones on the Strib’s ship happened to be FEMALE, if they do manage to get together, expect a new ruling species to take over the Strib’s planet…
😀
It’s the battle of the overly-cute self-aware yet secretly selfish and manipulative small mammals for all time! Let the games begin!