'Something I've wondered about ever since I came here, something I've never asked you, first of all because I was worried what the answer would be, later because I suspected I already knew the answer.'
'Goodness. What can it be?' the avatar asked, blinking.
'If you tried, if any Mind tried, could you impersonate my style?' the Chelgrian asked. 'Could you write a piece - a symphony, say - that would appear, to the critical appraiser, to be by me, and which, when I heard it, I'd imagine being proud to have written?'
The avatar frowned as it walked. It clasped its hands behind its back. It took a few more steps.
'Yes, I imagine that would be possible.'
'Would it be easy?'
'No. No more easy than any complicated task.'
'But you could do it much more quickly than I could?'
'I'd have to suppose so.'
'Hmm.' Ziller paused. The avatar turned to face him. Behind Ziller, the rocks and veil trees of the deepening gorge moved swiftly past. The barge rocked gently beneath their feet. 'So what,' the Chelgrian asked, 'is the point of me or anybody else writing a symphony, or anything else?'
The avatar raised its brows in surprise. 'Well, for one thing, if you do it, it's you who gets the feeling of achievement.'
'Ignoring the subjective. What would be the point for those listening to it?'
'They'd know it was one of their own species, not a Mind, who created it.'
'Ignoring that, too; suppose they weren't told it was by an AI, or didn't care.'
'If they hadn't been told then the comparison isn't complete; information is being concealed. If they don't care, then they're unlike any group of humans I've ever encountered.'
'But if you can-'
'Ziller, are you concerned that Minds - AIs, if you like - can create, or even just appear to create, original works of art?'
'Frankly, when they're the sort of original works of art that I create, yes.'
'Ziller, it doesn't matter. You have to think like a mountain climber.'
'Oh, do I?'
'Yes. Some people take days, sweat buckets, endure pain and cold and risk injury and - in some cases - permanent death to achieve the summit of a mountain only to discover there a party of their peers freshly arrived by aircraft and enjoying a light picnic.'
'If I was one of those climbers I'd be pretty damned annoyed.'
'Well, it is considered rather impolite to land an aircraft on a summit which people are at that moment struggling up to the hard way, but it can and does happen. Good manners indicate that the
picnic ought to be shared and that those who arrived by aircraft express awe and respect for the accomplishment of the climbers.'
'The point, of course, is that the people who spent days and sweated buckets could also have taken an aircraft to the summit if all they'd wanted was to absorb the view. It is the struggle that they crave. The sense of achievement is produced by the route to and from the peak, not by the peak itself. It is just the fold between the pages.' The avatar hesitated. It put its head a little to one side and narrowed its eyes. 'How far do I have to take this analogy, Cr Ziller?'
'You've made your point, but this mountain climber still wonders if he ought to re-educate his soul to the joys of flight and stepping out onto someone else's summit.'
'Better to create your own. Come on; I've a dying man to see on his way.'
