From: AKOSSOWSKY@TURBO.kean.edu
Subject: Re: PHIL: VR--Are we really the first?
Date: 23 Oct 92 22:42:56 EST


Actually, in the ST-TNG episode with professor moriarty from the Sherlock
Holmes stories,  It wasn't a bug, the computer was 'inadvertantly' asked
to create a character with a consiousness. Bad writing as far as I'm concerned.
The unusual thing was not that Moriarty was aware that he was a simulation,
but that he was AWARE period.  I mean, any virtual character in VR
today can be programmed to say "I'm a simulation!"
By the way, in ST-TNG, there are currently several sentient beings living
in the computer! I wonder if it's like William Gibsons' Matrix in there!
Anyone out here want to write an episode?