On 04-21-98 David Martorana wrote to Day Brown... 
 DM>  DB> ................... For instance, the purpose of a soulless 
 DM>  DB> avatar would only arise in it's effect on souls.  Such an avatar, 
 DM>  DB> having no soul, would not need awareness or consciousness either. 
 DM>  DB> When it ceased, or died, it's constituent elements would recycle, 
 DM>  DB> and be available for other forms and/or uses. 
 DM>   
 DM>    Saying something does not make it so. Avatars (if the term 
 DM>    actually defines a definable) might well have soul functions 
 DM>    or even more complex equivalents. Reaching through the HOLODECK 
 DM>    options, nothing can be ruled in or out. If you are goin to 
 DM>    present limits this early into explorations, it would amount to 
 DM>    placing a govener on the "deck". ... 
True.  But, I mean to enter a little slack into the system, some 
room for action that appears random and unmotivated by reason. I 
have seen patients in mental institutions who never had a single 
volitional act in the usual sense. no brain- no volition.  These 
creatures exhibit no more soul than a beast, if that.  Kharma in 
such a life? *IS* that a life? 
 
 DM>      How would we measure the length and wealth of what might be 
 DM>      conceptualizable? Too much could blow a fixed mental capacity. 
 DM>      Would the "deck" provide our greater personal capacity or must 
 DM>      it be set to primitive functioning?  ....how to measure measure? 
And, if the mental capacity is zero?  I dunno that IQ is quite it 
as far as understanding.  I have expressed some arguments from my 
readings to others in person; they seem to understand, but forget 
the whole thing ten minutes later.  It looks a lot like a mental 
block, and mental capacity generally has little to do with it. In 
my study and experience with psychoanalysis, this is commonly the 
reaction of patients whose modus operandi is challenged. 
 
 DM> ... Mr Brown! you ARE the only person I've run across on a 
 DM>      bbs that has presented an original reality search engine designed 
 DM>      to quest and define itself. 
What a neat and concise way to put it! tanx! I learn something! 
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