Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

The Princess Ineffabelle 97Dunes were gold plated, and there espied a humble hut; when he approached it, he saw anindividual of patriarchal appearance, in a robe as white as snow. The latter rose and spakethusly:“Thou seekest Ineffabelle, poor wretch” And yet thou knowest full well she dothnot live here these five hundred years, hence how vain and unavailing is thy passion? Theonly thing that I can do for thee is to let thee see her – not in the flesh, forsooth, but a fairinformational facsimile, a model that is digital, not physical, stochastic, not plastic,ergodic and most assuredly erotic, and all in yon Black Box, which I constructed in myspare time out of odds and ends!”“Ah, show her to me, show her to me now!” exclaimed Zipperupus, quivering.The patriarch gave a nod, examined the ancient volume for the princess’s coordinates, puther and the entire Middle Ages on punch cards, wrote up the program, threw the switch,lifted the lid of the Black Box and said.“Behold!”The King leaned over, looked an saw, yes, the Middle Ages simulated to a T, alldigital, binary , and nonlinear, and there was the land of Dandelia, The Icicle Forest, thepalace with the Helical Tower, the Aviary That Neighed, and the Treasury with aHundred Eyes as w ell, and there was Ineffabelle herself, taking a slow, stochastic strollthrough he simulated garden, and her circuits glowed red and gold as she picked simulatedaisies, and hummed a simulated song. Zipperupus, unable to restrain himself any longer,leaped upon the Black Box and in his madness tried to climb into that computerizedworld. The patriarch, however, quickly killed the current, hurled the King to the earth andsaid.“Madman! Wouldst attempt the impossible?! For no being made of matter canever enter a system that is naught but the flux and swirl of alphanumerical elements,discontinuous integer configurations, the abstract stuff of digits!”“But I must, I must!!” bellowed Zipperupus, beside himself, and beat his headagainst the Black Box until the metal was dented. The old sage then said:“If such is they inalterable desire, there is a way I can connect thee to the PrincessIneffabelle, but first thou must part with thy present form, for I shall take thy appurtenantcoordinates and make a program of thee, atom by atom, and place thy simulation in thatworld medievally modeled, informational and representational, and there it will remain,enduring as long as electrons course through these wires and hop from cathode to anode.But thou, standing here before me now, thou will be annihilated.