Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

A Conversation with Einstein’s Brain 443ACHILLES: Now, hold on a minute-you're employing the pronoun "he" about a processcombined with a huge book. That's no "he"-it's something else. You're prejudicingthe question.TORTOISE: Well, you would address him as Einstein as you fed in questions, wouldn'tyou? Or would you say, "Hullo, book-of-Einstein's brain-mechanisms, my nameis Achilles"? I think you would catch Einstein off guard if you did that. He'dcertainly be puzzled.ACHILLES: There is no "he." I wish you'd quit using that pronoun.TORTOISE: The reason I'm using it is that I'm simply imagining what you would havesaid to him, had you actually met him in his hospital bed in Princeton. Certainlyyou should address questions and comments to the book in the same fashion asyou would have to the person Einstein, shouldn't you? After all, the book initiallyreflects how his brain was on the last day of his life-and he regarded himself as aperson then, not a book, didn't he?ACHILLES: Well, yes. I should direct questions at the book as I would have to the realperson had I been there.TORTOISE: You could explain to him that he had, unfortunately, died, but that his brainhad been encoded in a mammoth catalogue after his death, which you are now inpossession of, and that you are conducting your conversation by means of thatcatalogue and its conversion tables for speech.ACHILLES: He'd probably be most astonished to hear that! TORTOISE: Who? I thoughtthere was no "he"!ACHILLES: There is no "he" if I'm talking to the book-but if I told it to the real Einstein,he'd be surprised.TORTOISE: Why would you be telling a live person to his face that he had already died,that his brain had been encoded in a catalogue, and that you were conducting yourconversation with him through that catalogue?ACHILLES: Well, I wouldn't tell it to a live person, I'd tell it to the book, and find outwhat the live person's reactions would have been. So, in a way, "he" is there. I ambeginning to be puzzled ... who am I talking to in that book? Is there somebodyalive because it exists? Where are those thoughts coming from?TORTOISE: From the book. You know that very well.ACHILLES: Well, then, how can he say how he's feeling? How does a book feel?