PeterWatts_Blindsight

Peter Watts 84 Blindsight
explained by a reliance on smaller conceptual units."
"Conceptual units?" Bates, I was beginning to realize, never
pulled up a subtitle if she could help it.
James nodded. "Like processing a line of text word by word,
instead of looking at complete phrases. The smaller the units, the
faster they can be reconfigured; it gives you very fast semantic
reflexes. The down side is that it's difficult to maintain the same
level of logical consistency, since the patterns within the larger
structure are more likely to get shuffled."
"Whoa." Szpindel straightened, all thoughts of liquids and
centipetal force forgotten.
"All I'm saying is, we aren't necessarily dealing with deliberate
deception here. An entity who parses information at one scale
might not be aware of inconsistencies on another; it might not even
have conscious access to that level."
"That's not all you're saying."
"Isaac, you can't apply Human norms to a—"
"I wondered what you were up to." Szpindel dove into the
transcripts. A moment later he dredged up an excerpt:
Request information on environments you
consider lethal. Request information on your
response to the prospect of imminent
exposure to lethal environments.
GLAD TO COMPLY. BUT YOUR LETHAL IS DIFFERENT
FROM US. THERE ARE MANY MIGRATING
CIRCUMSTANCES.
"You were testing it!" Szpindel crowed. He smacked his lips;
his jaw ticced. You were looking for an emotional response!"
"It was just a thought. It didn't prove anything."
"Was there a difference? In the response time?"
James hesitated, then shook her head. "But it was a stupid idea.
There are so many variables, we have no idea how they—I mean,
they're alien..."