Comment on Key Entity Extraction: Complete of Verlore Geleentheid
Wolfie_Inu, 18 May 2013 07:10 am

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@Lavabat: Exactly, and we're the aliens as far as she's concerned. :)

I also alluded to related themes (can you ever know how, or even whether, another species truly "thinks") on page #95. But I think my point was missed somewhat at the time.

This all applies at an individual level too, of course (you can't really know, maybe you're the only thinking person in a world of convincing zombies) but it's at least reasonable to extrapolate sapience to other members of your own species. Members of other species, though, or AIs ... well that's a different story. Even if they behave the same, their internal reasoning might be completely alien. You can write a convincing program that passes the Turing test, but does it really think, or is it just convincingly following its script? Even if it's just convincingly faking being sapient, is there a significant difference between what it does and "true" thought, or is there even such a thing as "true" thought in the first place? And so on, and so forth.

This problem is especially relevant for Jane, since she knows that Om-Ankh are programmable...

Comment on Key Entity Extraction: Complete of Verlore Geleentheid
Wolfie_Inu, 09 May 2013 04:06 pm

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TRANSLATION:

PANEL 1
Jane: Where to now? The so-called chapel? That must be an euphemism for something else, then ...
Alex: No, it's ... it's just a normal everyday chapel ... why?

PANEL 2
Jane: What would an Om-Ankh want with a chapel? What next? Is your general supposedly interceding in prayer for the ... "souls" of your dead?
?: No ...

PANEL 3
?: What I want is the return of the living ...

Comment on Alex Comes Marching Home of Verlore Geleentheid
Wolfie_Inu, 09 May 2013 03:57 pm

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Eish, dis 'n bietjie te duidelik dat daai skepe rekenaarmodelle is. It's a bit too obvious that those ships are computer models. Oh well.


TRANSLATION:

PANEL 1
Jane: Where are you taking me?
Alex: Our ship, the one we arrived in. According to my sensor records, they fled when you started shooting at us. / If they followed our plan B, they're waiting at a rendezvous ...

PANEL 2
Alex: At last ... here we are ...

PANEL 3
Soldier: Commandant Rossouw! The General has just been informed of your return. He was in the chapel and is waiting for you there.
Alex: Thank you, corporal. I'll take the prisoner there, then. / After that I'll have to visit the medical bay; tell them to be ready for me.
Jane: (thinks) As I thought ... more Om-Ankh ...

Comment on Culpability of Verlore Geleentheid
Wolfie_Inu, 04 May 2013 02:03 pm

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Die storie beleef tans die simptome van 'n verkorte draaiboek. Aanvanklik sou daar 'n muitery aan boord gewees het om by hierdie punt uit te kom, maar dit sou te lank gevat het en sou van Jane 'n aksie verg wat selfs vir haar net te harteloos is. Hierdie verkorte weergawe van die gebeurtenisse het dalk 'n paar gate in die logika waaraan ek nie tyd gehad het om te dink nie, maar ek's seker my lesers sal my binnekort daarvan inlig ... :P

The story is currently experiencing the symptoms of an abbreviated script. Originally there would have been a mutiny on board to reach this point in the plot, but it would have taken too long and would have required an action from Jane that's just too heartless, even for her. This shortened version of events might have a couple of holes in the logic that I didn't have enough time to think through, but I'm sure my readers will inform me of them soon enough ... :P


TRANSLATION:

PANEL 1
Jane: (thinks) No ... / How could I have taken a risk like that? After I was disconnected from the ship's computer so suddenly, my hand-eye coordination must have been off kilter ... I didn't succeed in shooting the grenade from the attacker's hand to let it land in her ship ... / This is my fault!

PANEL 2
Alex: Looks like it doesn't bother you to put your crew in danger ... I'll try again ... / Come with me or I'll pump you personally full of lead!
Jane: (thinks) And I only hit her in the shoulder ... and what's more, I dropped my pistol! / Then I don't have a choice ...

PANEL 3
Jane: Thank you for waiting for the bridge to be evacuated before you -
Alex: Humph. Looks to me like I care more about the lives of your people than you do ... I'm starting to question our orders to abduct you!

Comment on Hoofstuk 7 of Verlore Geleentheid
Wolfie_Inu, 30 Apr 2013 12:51 pm

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@Lavabat: Well ... the Verlore Geleentheid universe doesn't have a canonical theology. So if the real god is Allah, Arnoldse (being Muslim) is in solid. I'm Christian so there are several possibilities here - sacrificing yourself to save others is noble even if it's suicide, but now you need to factor in that she's from another religion and stuff. But there is/are no canonical god(s) in this universe. Not that there is necessarily no god, the story just doesn't provide an answer. Although individuals still have their religions. Louwrens is your bog standard Boer so he's Protestant, probably Calvinist; Jane is Kirishitan/Catholic. How this is possible since she's not human will be explained later - but it's a cultural/historical reason (same reason why she can be Japanese) and does not directly involve the supernatural in any way.

@GabrielsThoughts: Wait, what? Languages? Apropos of what? If it's about the "inferior languages" thing, I was making a good-natured joke at the expense of people who have had issues with my made-up sound effects in the past ... which obviously sound strange when (mis)pronounced in English because they're not English sound effects ...

Besides, CJ Langenhoven (an early Afrikaans author) did say that in the future, super intelligent Aryan/Elvish-looking aliens from the planet Venus will adopt Afrikaans as the new interstellar language, because it is the most advanced language in the universe. So, logically, English must be inferior. Sorry brah - that's the way the cookie crumbles :P