Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!minow
From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Deus ex machina
Message-ID: <109@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 21:32:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: decvax.109
Posted: Tue Sep  3 21:32:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 06:35:32 EDT
Reply-To: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin minow)
Distribution: net
Organization: DEC - ULTRIX Engineering Group
Lines: 48
Xref: watmath net.religion.jewish:2397 net.sf-lovers:9896

The following quotation is from W. R. Yates's book, Diasporah
(Baen Books, 1985):

    "Excuse me, Dr. Greenberg," said a woman's voice, "but I was told
  to wake you in time for dinner."
    Paul jerked from his sleep, but relaxed when he [discovered that]
  the voice was coming from the computer's vox box....
    "Good evening, Gollum," he said.
    "Good evening," returned the emotionless vox box.
    "I've been wanting to talk to you,"  Paul said.
    "Really? What about?"
    "During the Shabbos service on the [space ship] Harpo Martz,"
  Paul said, "you were saying something on the screen.  What was it?"
    "Like any good Jew, I was participating in the service."
    "But you're a computer!" Paul answered.
    "And I am a sentient, rational being, capable of making my own
  decisions," the voice said.  "By that definition, I have a soul."
    "Oh," Paul answered.
    ... [Paul walks downstairs and encounters his host, Dr. Goldstein:]
    "Hello Paul," said Dr. Goldstein.  "How was the nap?"
    "Quite good," declared Paul.  "I feel quite a bit better."
    "You look somewhat confused, Dr. Greenberg.  Is something the
  matter?"
    "Your computer told me that it's a Jew."
    Goldstein laughed.
    "Are all of your computers Jewish?"
    "It depends on how sophisticated they are,"  explained [Dr.
  Goldstein's daughter] Shoshanna, bringing a covered tray from the
  kitchen.  "Sooner or later, the computer runs up against the concepts
  of morality, an dsince our concepts are codified the Talmud, we
  insert a memory of it.  From that point on, all of our computers
  have behaved in a perfectly moral fashion.
    "Sometimes, when working on a complex problem, the logic can be
  a little obtuse, but the computer always has a rational explanation
  -- in terms of the Talmud."

How (theologiclly) realistic is this?

PS: there are two words used in Diasporah that I know to be Swedish
("narkoman" for drug addict and "dator" for computer).  Are these
words found in Hebrew also?

PPS: I know the title of this note is slightly inappropriate, but
it appears to be a valid criticism of the book as literature --
unless the second half is much better than what I've read so far.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow