{"id":13687,"date":"2013-11-23T23:47:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T04:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=13687"},"modified":"2013-11-24T21:14:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T02:14:25","slug":"anna-part-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=13687","title":{"rendered":"Anna, part 23"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is astounding,&#8221; Bob said.  &#8220;I wonder what the limits are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If it&#8217;s some sort of mass illusion,&#8221; Alec said, &#8220;then I guess there wouldn&#8217;t be any limits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gene was looking over at Jill.  &#8220;I don&#8217;t think Jill thinks the unicorn is an illusion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jill wasn&#8217;t paying attention.  She was looking happily into the eyes of the unicorn, which was looking just as happily back into her eyes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They usually only go for virgins,&#8221; Bob and Gene said at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>There was a long and uncomfortable silence.  &#8220;Awkward,&#8221; Alec finally said.<\/p>\n<p>Jill laughed.  &#8220;Only for them.&#8221;  Then she went back to ignoring the men and paying attention to the unicorn.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wonder whether Anna can conjure up other mythic objects,&#8221; Bob said.  &#8220;Mind if I have a go at it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He sat in front of the laptop and began to type. &#8220;Anna?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><code>\"Yes Bob.\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Can you get me the stone tablets with the ten commandments?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><code>\"Are you referring to the tablets of the man you call Moses?\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, those tablets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><code>\"I am sorry Bob, but that would be a contradiction.\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You mean it would defy the laws of reality?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There was a pause.  <code>\"In a sense, yes.  But perhaps not in the sense you mean.\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>By now the others were gathered around the laptop, following along intently.  &#8220;Ask Anna what reality it would defy.&#8221;  Alec suggested.<\/p>\n<p>The answer quickly appeared on the screen.  <code>\"It would defy *your* reality.\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;May I try?&#8221; Jill asked.  Bob nodded, and Jill sat down in front of the computer keyboard.  &#8220;Anna,&#8221; she typed, &#8220;pink unicorns also aren&#8217;t part of our reality, any more than time traveling police call boxes.  But haven&#8217;t you just demonstrated that unicorns are consistent with our reality?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><code>\"Yes, in fact they are.  Your secular humanist mindset allows for non-denominational magic, not for tablets of ancient stone appearing with rules for a moral life.\"<\/code><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Are you saying that the limits of what you can do are set by our own belief systems?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><code>\"It is more subtle than that.  A world in which the tablets of Moses existed would be a world in which you would not be you.  The person who made the request would cease to exist.  That would be a contradiction.\"<\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is astounding,&#8221; Bob said. &#8220;I wonder what the limits are.&#8221; &#8220;If it&#8217;s some sort of mass illusion,&#8221; Alec said, &#8220;then I guess there wouldn&#8217;t be any limits.&#8221; Gene was looking over at Jill. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think Jill thinks the unicorn is an illusion.&#8221; Jill wasn&#8217;t paying attention. She was looking happily into the eyes &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/?p=13687\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Anna, part 23&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13687"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13705,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13687\/revisions\/13705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}