Sally wrote:
Given that [a] Orac's first priority - by about a trillion miles - is its precious self, but that [b] of all its humans, it appears to like Avon best, what would the result have been had *Vila* been closer to the gun in Orbit and had asked the fatal question? My immediate reaction is that - in self-interest - it would have been 'Avon weighs more than 70 kilos', but would Orac have been so certain of Vila's ability to win any fight for the gun and/or shoot Avon if he *had* to? (my further opinion is that yes, Vila would have killed Avon to save himself, but would the rat in a box agree?)
Me, I think that, while Vila possibly might have been psychologically able to kill Avon in order to save himself, whether or not he would be *physically* capable of it is an open question. If he was lucky, he might be able to come up behind Avon and get a shot off before Avon's aware of anything, but if Avon's overheard the conversation as Vila did, or if Vila hesitates or gives him any reason to be suspicious... Well, in a confrontation between Vila with a gun and Avon without one, I'm honestly not sure which to put my money on. Frankly, I'd be inclined to call it 50-50 odds on each of them, really. Vila's not very good with guns, and Avon *is* very good with survival.
And if Avon *did* manage to get the gun away from Vila, I have no doubt that he would have *no* compunction whatsoever about promptly turning it upon Vila. Either way, of course, Orac wins...
If Orac *had* nudged Vila into trying it, and they'd survived as they did in the real Orbit, would Avon have shown any anger towards Orac? (BTW, would he have done so towards Vila? I really aren't sure that he would - he is honest enough to realise that Vila's self-interest exceeds his own)
I don't think he would have shown any anger towards Orac, because, trhoughout the series, he makes a point of hanging on very strongly to his "It's only a machine, it doesn't have any feelings, I hate it when people anthropomorphize" atttitude. He might have been miffed, but he'd probably figure that Orac, being a machine, was simply doing the logical thing. Of course, if that reasoning lets Orac off the hook, it ought also to apply to Vila, who was following exactly the same logic... I rather suspect that the attitude he would take towards Vila -- at least outwardly -- would be one of sneering condescention for having botched the job of killing him.
While Orbit isn't on my Top Ten episodes (no Blake :-)) I do like the fact that it has our three most blatant examples of self-interest smashing head-on, and only one comes out of it the same ...
And seems to get *far* less than his share of the blame, IMO...
-- Betty Ragan ** bragan@nrao.edu ** http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bragan Not speaking for my employers, officially or otherwise. "Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions..." -- Isaac Asimov
Betty Ragan wrote:
I don't think he would have shown any anger towards Orac, because, trhoughout the series, he makes a point of hanging on very strongly to his "It's only a machine, it doesn't have any feelings, I hate it when people anthropomorphize" atttitude. He might have been miffed, but he'd probably figure that Orac, being a machine, was simply doing the logical thing.
I go back and forth on this one. He certainly disdains people who openly anthropomorphize Orac, and yet . . . in Games, when he suddenly seizes on the idea that Belkov thinks of Gambit as a friend, I don't think he pulled that idea out of midair. Orac might well have been Avon's favourite conversationalist at times. Someone once pointed out to me that Orac was the only other NT among Avon's companions.
Mistral