They're both software. [The irony has not escaped him, that that's the metaphor Ned himself chose to go with.] And that's the point -- look, you can either think of this like a person or like a machine. [He turns to face Ned again, and he's still upset, but back to stability now for the moment. Talking about ideas, concepts, even if they're ones that scare him, it's easier than dealing with the mental images Ned put into his head a moment ago.]
If it's a machine, then everything resets, and you move on like nothing happened. Maybe you get some kind of new programming, some new protocol that tells you how to avoid what happened before, but that's it. Nothing fundamental changes. And that's allegedly how it's supposed to work here, and that would be fine if we were machines, but we're not.
So how does it work with humans? It's like you said: we learn. And what we learn is how to cope. We have to. I learned how to cope with 50 billion people dying because I had no choice. I learned how to adapt to death. We all did. That's how it works, right? Wouldn't you say? [Gods, but he wishes he could smoke right now without feeling guilty about it.]
Spam
If it's a machine, then everything resets, and you move on like nothing happened. Maybe you get some kind of new programming, some new protocol that tells you how to avoid what happened before, but that's it. Nothing fundamental changes. And that's allegedly how it's supposed to work here, and that would be fine if we were machines, but we're not.
So how does it work with humans? It's like you said: we learn. And what we learn is how to cope. We have to. I learned how to cope with 50 billion people dying because I had no choice. I learned how to adapt to death. We all did. That's how it works, right? Wouldn't you say? [Gods, but he wishes he could smoke right now without feeling guilty about it.]