< previous page page_271 next page >

Page 271
ful to lean on while sleeping. Anyway, I would be obliged to switch to another encyclopedia, for instance, Pliny.3, where the external form of beings is not determined by their internal structure. My masters frequently resort to encyclopedias of this kind when they tell stories to their children. Thus I start asking you if by any chance you saw your three-legged Antipodean while traveling through Pliny Country.
Smith: How do you react to the sentence Every leg has two Antipodeans?
CSP: It sounds anomalous in all the encyclopedias I have.
Smith: Do you understand it? Is it nonsensical? Is it meaningless?
CSP: It is hard to interpret it within the framework of my memory. I would have to build up a supplementary encyclopedia, and this is not very easy to do. Let me see. I could conceive of a universe inhabited by big, intelligent legs, unable to move without the help of a slave, and where each leg has two Antipodeans as its servants (Antipodeans exist only in order to serve their Master Legs). . . . Just a moment! I can even represent this story according to E.15. There is a military hospital, a sort of S.M.A.S.H. place, where wounded soldiers undergo amputation, and the Colonel orders that every amputated leg be taken by two Antipodeans and brought to the incinerators. . . . Wait a minute. . . . I have an encyclopedia called Gnosis.33, where every Antipodean has two demons commanding him. . . . So, there is a world where every Antipodean leg is commanded by the twofold Antipodean that exists in every body. The Good One tells the leg to move toward God, the Bad One tells the leg to move toward Evil, and so. . . . I can find many solutions to your puzzle.
Smith: What happens when your masters tell you anomalous sentences in order to embarrass you?
CSP: For instance?
Smith: Procrastination loves Tuesday.
CSP: They don't usually do that. Why should they? In any case, I try to interpret itsince to love is an activity that can be implemented by a living being. I suppose that Procrastination is the name of a dog and that Tuesday is the name of a person (as a matter of fact, I know of a story where there is a person called Friday). My orders are: if they tell you something, try to find an interpretation in some encyclopedia.
Smith: I understand that, since you can use the concept of True2, you believe in an external world and in the actual existence of certain beings. I guess it is because your masters told you to take it for granted.
CSP: That's not the only reason. I receive inputs from something other than my transistors. For instance, the messages you are sending

 
< previous page page_271 next page >