Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

13DANIEL C. DENNETTWhere am I?Now that I've won my suit under the Freedom of Information Act, I at liberty to revealfor the first time a curious episode in my life that n be of interest not only to thoseengaged in research in the philosophy mind, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience butalso to the gene public.Several years ago I was approached by Pentagon officials who ask me to volunteer for ahighly dangerous and secret mission. In collaboration with NASA and Howard Hughes,the Department of Defense v spending billions to develop a Supersonic TunnelingUnderground I vice, or STUD. It was supposed to tunnel through the earth's core at greatspeed and deliver a specially designed atomic warhead "right up I Red's missile silos," asone of the Pentagon brass put it.The problem was that in an early test they had succeeded in lodging a warhead about amile deep under Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they want me to retrieve it for them. "Why me?" Iasked. Well, the mission involved some pioneering applications of current brain research,and they h heard of my interest in brains and of course my Faustian curiosity a greatcourage and so forth.... Well, how could I refuse? The difficulty that brought thePentagon to my door was that the device I'd been ask to recover was fiercely radioactive,in a new way. According to monitoring instruments, something about the nature of thedevice and its complexExcerpt from Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology by Daniel C. DennettCopyright © 1978 by Bradford Books, Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the Publishers