Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

The Seventh Sally 293friend was coming with him. When he had blasted off into space,pointed the bow between two great clusters of eternal flame andopened the throttle all the way, Klapaucius said:"Trurl, you're hopeless. You always act first, think later.And now what do you intend to do when we get there?" -"I'll take the kingdom away from him!""And what will you do with it?""Destroy it!" Trurl was about to shout, but choked on thefirst syllable when he realized what he was saying. Finally hemumbled:"I'll hold an election. Let them choose just rulers fromamong themselves.""You programmed them all to be feudal lords or shiftlessvassals. What good would an election do? First you'd have toundo the entire structure of the kingdom, then assemble fromscratch . . .""And where," exclaimed Trurl, "does the changing ofstructures end and the tampering with minds begin?!" Klapauciushad no answer for this, and they flew on in gloomy silence, tillthe planet of Excelsius came into view. As they circled it,preparing to land, they beheld a most amazing sight.The entire planet was covered with countless signs ofintelligent life. Microscopic bridges, like tiny lines, spannedevery rill and rivulet, while the puddles, reflecting the stars,were full of microscopic boats like floating chips. . . . Thenight side of the sphere was dotted with glimmering cities, andon the day side one could make out flourishing metropolises,though the inhabitants themselves were much too little toobserve, even through the strongest lens. Of the king there wasnot a trace, as if the earth had swallowed him up."He isn't here," said Trurl in an awed whisper. "What havethey done with him? Somehow they managed to break through thewalls of their box and occupy the asteroid. . . .""Look!" said Klapaucius, pointing to a little cloud nolarger than a thimble and shaped like a mushroom; it slowly roseinto the atmosphere. "They've discovered atomic energy.... Andover there-you see that bit of glass? It's the remains of thebox, they've made it into some sort of temple. . . .""I don't understand. It was only a model, after all. Aprocess with a large number of parameters, a simulation, a mockupfor a monarch to practice on, with the necessary feedback,variables, multistats . . ." muttered Trurl, dumbfounded."Yes. But you made the unforgivable mistake ofoverperfecting your replica. Not wanting to build a mereclocklike mechanism, you inad-