Delayed reactionblogging: 'A Confusion of Princes,' by Garth Nix

[brin_bellway]

[cw: death, (mild) amnesia]


What limitations could your upload tech *possibly* have that would restrict you to on-the-fly copying only? Sure, "I'm cut off from the psi-Internet because I have to wear anti-psionic armour to fight these psychic enemies, so this battle is *genuinely* life-and-death" is all very dramatic, but *why* does it have to be genuinely life-and-death? Why can't you just say to the Imperial Mind "hey, I'm about to put on anti-psionic armour, can you please take a backup of me to keep in reserve in case I die in this battle"? Then you're only facing the prospect of a few minutes of memory loss, no worse than falling asleep! (which does suck, but *nowhere near* as much)

(Thing I only just thought of now: ...wait, hang on, is this some sort of soul thing? The psionic AI can only take a backup of you while you're actively dying because it is a *psionic* AI and actually transferring your soul to a new body via the psi-Internet? I did not get the impression that this was a universe that cared about that sort of thing--universes that care about the unique identity of souls don't tend to allow the level of brainwashing the Empire performs, do they? at least not without a lot of risk of the brainwashing later coming undone as the soul fights back against it--but maybe I was supposed to.)

Comments

[brin_bellway]

Edited to clarify phrasing. Originally the lowercase parenthetical at the end of the first paragraph wasn't there and the hyperlink was simply attached to "no worse than falling asleep", but upon further reflection I think the link alone might not convey what I intended to convey with it.

[contrarianarchon]

... the implication that A Confusion Of Princes has souls is weird, but they have weird psionic shit so really who knows.

(Also those people are all incompetent pricks dammit. What the hell)

(Also are you implying that *anyone* has a useful understanding of the Imperial Mind? I got the impression it was the metaphysical equivalent of legacy software left unmaintained and unread for so long that all the software for keeping it alive is also now unmaintainable legacy software - to be fair, that's something I'm formulating now after not having read it for years and years)

[brin_bellway]

I probably should not be as surprised as I am that somebody actually knows what I'm talking about.

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>>(Also those people are all incompetent pricks dammit. What the hell)<<

To be fair, people who are *too* competent--or competent in the wrong ways--are destabilising, and the Empire seems to be fairly proactive about arranging to brainwash or kill anyone who might be destabilising. (Sometimes it even lets the victim pick which!)

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>>Also are you implying that *anyone* has a useful understanding of the Imperial Mind?<<

"Having a useful understanding of the Imperial Mind" is *definitely* destabilising. I caught on fairly quickly that there was more to the Mind than it was letting on (though I didn't *quite* get its true nature right), but then I'm not mind-programmed.

Hmm...

Yeah, this is stated explicitly:

“Have you ever wondered what the Imperial Mind actually is?”

“No…” I said slowly. Why hadn’t I wondered? The Imperial Mind just was … whatever it was.

“That is part of the making of a Prince,” said Morojal. “In the same way that we mind-program servants, Princes are made not to question certain things.”

(Also, re: metaphysical immune systems, I should maybe note that Khem *does* come to perceive his mind-programming as ego-dystonic and fights back against it. But protagonists don't count.)

[contrarianarchon]

>> I probably should not be as surprised as I am that somebody actually knows what I'm talking about.

I mean, I read it on impulse years ago, so it's not like it's beating out obscurity by a big margin, but even so. It is the kind of book you think about every now and again, though.

>> and the Empire seems to be fairly proactive

True. That just makes it *stupid* and incompetent.

>> I caught on fairly quickly that there was more to the Mind than it was letting on

I think I wasn't really paying attention - note the opinion from extrapolated distant-past-me but it didn't seem like the most interesting thing going on until it got reveals.

>> But protagonists don't count

They do not. And his life choices always struck me as weird anyway ;)

[brin_bellway]

>>I mean, I read it on impulse years ago, so it's not like it's beating out obscurity by a big margin, but even so.<<

I read it because I liked Garth Nix's other books.