Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

The Princess Ineffabelle 98So that thy only existence may be in the form of given fields and potentials, statistical,heuristical, and wholly digital!”“That’s hard to believe,” said Zipperupus. “How will I know you’ve simulatedme, and not someone else?”“Very well, we’ll make a trial run,” said the sage. And he took all the King’smeasurements, as for a suit of clothes, though with much greater precision, since everyatom was carefully plotted and weighed, and then he fed the program into the Black Boxand said:“Behold!”The King peered inside and saw himself sitting by the fire and reading in anancient book about the Princess Ineffabelle, then rushing out to find here, asking here andthere, until in the heart of the gold-plated desert he came upon a humble hut and a snowwhitepatriarch, who greeted him with the words. “Thou seekest Ineffabelle, poorwretch!” And so on.“Surely now thou art convinced,” aid the patriarch, switching it off. “This time Ishall program thee in the Middle Ages, at the side of the sweet Ineffabelle, that thoumayest dream with her an unending dream, simulated, nonlinear, binary. . . ““Yes, yes, I understand,” said the King. “But still, it’s only my likeness, notmyself, since I am right here, and not in any Box!”“But thou wilt not be here long,” replied the sage with a kindly smile, “for I shallattend to that. . . .”And he pulled a hammer from under the bed, a heavy hammer, but serviceable.“When thou art locked in the arms of thy beloved,” the patriarch told him, “I shallsee to it that there be not two of thee, one here and one there, in the Box – employing amethod that is old and primitive, yet never fails, so if thou wilt just bend over a little. . . .”“First let me take another look at your Ineffabelle,” said the King. “Just to makesure. . . “The sage lifted the lid of the Black Box and showed him Ineffabelle. The Kinglooked and looked, and finally said:“The description in the ancient volume is greatly exaggerated. She’s not bad, ofcourse, but nowhere near as beautiful as it says in the chronicles. Well, so long, old sage.. . .”And he turned to leave.“Where art thou going madman?!” cried the patriarch, clutching his hammer, forthe King was almost out the door.“Anywhere but in the Box,” said Zipperupus and hurried out, but at that verymoment the dream burst like a bubble beneath his feet, and he found himself in thevestibule facing the bitterly disappointed Subtillion.