#moxon's master

[the-final-sentence]

If asked to-day I should answer less confidently.

Ambrose Bierce, from "Moxon's Master"

[btciiyeehemengir]

Doubtless you do not hold with those (I need not name them to a man of your reading) who have taught that all matter is sentient, that every atom is a living, feeling, conscious being. I do. There is no such thing as dead, inert matter: it is all alive; all instinct with force, actual and potential; all sensitive to the same forces in its environment and susceptible to the contagion of the higher and subtler ones residing in such superior organisms as it may be brought into relation with, as those of man when he is fashioning it into an instrument of his will. It absorbs something of his intelligence and purpose–more of him in proportion to the complexity of the resulting machine and that of its work.

Ambrose Bierce, Moxon’s Master

[burlveneer-music]

And here's a contemporary remix of Onyx's Robot World (Moxon's Master Mix)

[ghostofisis-blog]

Forces

There is no such thing as dead inert matter: it is all alive; all instinct with force, actual and potential; all sensitive to the same forces in its environment and susceptible to the contagion of higher and subtler ones residing in such superior organisms as it may be brought into relation with, as those of man when he is fashioning it into an instrument of his will.

Ambrose Bierce, Moxon's Master (1909)

[danggeht-blog]

[ghostofisis-blog]

Dichotomies

"Presently he added, "What is a 'machine'? The word has been variously defined. Here is one definition from a popular dictionary: 'Any instrument  or organization by which power is applied and made effective, or a desired effect produced.' Well, then, is not man a machine? And you will admit that he thinks - or he thinks he thinks." Ambrose Bierce; "Moxon's Master" (1909)