\documentstyle[doublespace,12pt]{article}
\title{Examining Individuality in {\em Mother of Storms\/}}
\author{Sam Hartman}
\date{10/22/96}

% Expand intro some
% expand media possibly by talking about watering down, etc
% expand AI by talking about problems and arguing against them.

\begin{document}
\def\mos{{\em MOS\/}}

	Beneeth the global riots and killer hurricanes of John
	Barnes's {\em Mother of Storms\/} (hereafter
	abbreviated~\mos) lies a complex, ever-changing world.  Barnes
	takes great care to craft a rich set of technologies,
	historical events and social forces on which he builds the
	action of the novel.  Beneath the struggle to save the Earth
	from supernatural hurricanes, Barnes examines questions of
	identity, individual integrity and what it means to be a
	person.

\section*{Beginning with Media}

	Many of the technologies in \mos\ tend to break down the
	boundaries between individuals and the groups to which they
	belong.  However, this trend does not start with science
	fiction; it is well-grounded in modern twentieth-century
	media.  Television and radio tend to globalize events:
	everyone has access to the coverage of the event.  In a sense,
	the media puts all viewers on the same level; as they make
	their individual judgments, they are armed with the same set
	of facts.  Also,the globalization of events is somewhat
	normative: the media defines certain cultural expectations
	about what is reasonable.  For example, evidence strongly
	suggests that violence in media such as televisionhas
	contributed to the spread of violence in society.

	More recent forms of participatory media such as the Internet
	contribute to the process in a similar way. Instead of groups
	being formed by some central interpretation of the world
	broadcast to viewers, groups can naturally congregate and
	develop a shared opinion.

\section*{XV: an Emursion of Consciousness}

	However, \mos\ invents technology to continue this trend;
within the novel, virtual experience (XV) plays an important part in
establishing cultural identity.  Millions of people experience life
through stars like Synthi Venture and Rock; through these XV
personalities, they gain what approximates first-hand familiarity with
facets of the world that they would not encounter during their normal
lives.  When the UN bombs Cyberia, when Louie Tynan walks on Mars, the
world is there.

	In this way, XV extends the perception of a global mind set
	established by the traditional media.  In addition to sharing
	knowledge of events, XV allows people to share feelings and
	thoughts.  In this sense, XV could be a powerful tool for
	understanding; both sides in a debate could potentially
	experience the other point of view.  \mos\ takes advantage of
	these productive uses of XV in a few situations.  For
	example, President Hardshaw takes advantage of XV in order to
	calm the American people after Clem ravishes the continent.
	By sharing her belief that things are starting to be under
	control, she attempts to convince the populace that there is
	no reason for panic and that the government still exists.
%quote


	The shared context created by XV has two important effects.
	First,it destroys the sanctity of individual experience.  Even
	in a culture of mass-media, where events and actions are open to scrutiny, there is some privacy associated
	with intimate relationships between small groups of people.
	Also, true thoughts and feelings are inviolate.  However, in
	\mos, XV can open someone's inner feelings about the most
	personal aspects of life---even without the consent of the one
	having the experience.  Barnes drives this point home with Randy Householder's search for the person who murdered concent Dee:
\begin{quote}
They came to the door of his mobile home, and made him and
his then-wife Terry sit down, and told them that Kimbie Dee had been
murdered, and it looked like sex murder.  Life stopped when they told
no -clues about motive, but they damned
well knew from the jack driven into her skull why she had been murdered and
raped. 
\end{quote}


	However, the invasive openness of XV is not limited to criminals.  In a
	society where millions of people experience the artificial
	sexual relationship between Synthi Venture and Rock, many
	traditional barriers to sharing private experiences
	disappear.Even a fairly ordinary couple like Bill and Candy
	are willing to share their honeymoon on the storm-ravaged Hawaii with the world:
\begin{quotation}
he whispers to Candy that it's going to be okay, and won't they have
something to tell the relatives.

It seems to put some heart in her, for she turns him and smiles.  ``We
can't tell them, honey, they've been there and been us.''

Bill snorts.  ``Guess you're right at that.  Well, at least we really have
something to be for them.''
\end{quotation}


	The second major effect of XV is a continuing trend towards
	watered down media that appeals to the lowest common
	denominator.Even more than with traditional media, news
	focuses on emotions and on feelings more than on what's going
	on.  Berlina Jameson symbolizes the struggle to retain some
	degree of objective reporting.  Her success scooping the
	methane disaster allows her to escape the traditional model of the overly emotional reporter.  However, it is
	clear that she is atypical and that the audiences don't always
	appreciate her style. For example, Mary Waterhouse (Synthi Venture) says
	she finds it harder to believe Jameson.  ``She's so dedicated
	to being flat that she takes the story out of it; she might as
	well be reading ticker-tape or something.''


	Unfortunately, since XV is dominated by emotions, strong
	emotions---sex, violence and rage---sell.  As demonstrated by
	the global riots, such emotions can feed on each other in an
	increasing cycle.


\section*{Optimization and Privacy}

	
	The cultural implications of the world-wide data networks
rival XV's impact on society.  networks of \mos\ are filled with
optimization programs that attempt to improve the efficiency of the
computers.  When Louie Tynan begins spending time on the moon, he is
reminded of these optimizers; the doctor who is explaining them
reminds him that people don't exactly know what the optimizers do, or
how the optimize system works.  In order to understand how this
differs from technical systems today, imagine the reaction of the {\sc
FAA} to a claim that no human understood how or why flight control
systems worked.


	At first glance, this optimization of computer services, while
	important in the technical sphere, brings up few social
	concerns.  However, it's important to realize that a complex
	series of technical and social changes are necessary to make
	such a network configuration viable.  As the technology to
	develop the optimizers matured, people must have realized the
	potential benefit.  In tern, they grew more accustomed to the
	idea that they might not fully control or understand their
	communications infrastructure.

	However, the optimizers didn't contribute directly to any
	major change in cultural identity or in the blurring of the
	individual.  Instead,they created a climate that made
	`datarodents' possible.  As packets travel the network, these
	small programs look for data that meets specific patterns and
	report it to their owners for analysis.  Several characters
	use datarodents: Randy examines Harris Diem in an attempt to
	learn about Kimbie's murder; Jameson uses datarodents to find
	out about the scope of the disaster; and several other
	characters mention them in passing.

	These datarodents are not restricted to public information
	gathering.  For example, Jameson's initial tip that the
	government was hiding something comes from examining a private
	phone conversation.  Barnes admits this would be a major
	invasion of privacy if there were any expectation of privacy.
	However, he said that few people still have any belief that
	they had or should have privacy.

	Both XV and the rodents tend to peal away the layers of
	protection around the world, exposing dark corners to the
	public scrutiny.  XV opens the experiences and feelings, while
	the datarodents expose information and facts.  So, once the
	experiences, feelings, events and statistics are pealed away
	from an individual, what's left?  Clearly, the characters of
	\mos\ feel that something still gives them an
	identity as a human---perhaps, the ability to create new experiences, or
	perhaps something as simple as their belief in their own
	individuality.

\section*{The Transcendent}
	
	The question of what it means to be a human is most
	significant to Louie and Carla Tynan.  Even before the loss of
	their bodies, they both spent enough time `plugged in' that a
	majority of their consciousness was online, not embedded in any
	physical form.


Louie first had to face questions about how he defined himself when he
started working for long periods of time in the telepresence
equipment.He didn't realize the scope of the changes that the
optimizers would make.  He was worried about whether he would be the
same person after the experience---not about whether he would be a
person at all.  After discussing how other changes varying in
magnitude from clipping toenails to brain trauma effected a person, he  concluded that a
large part of whether the person would be a different person after the
experience was how they thought of themselves.

	However, the optimizers changed Louie more than he or {\sc NASA} imagined.  Louie does not make a strong effort to maintain the
	traditional human viewpoint as he realizes his new potential.
	A large fraction of his time is spent jacked into his network.
	He soon comes to realize that he feels crippled in his physical body:
\begin{quotation}
There was a time when the view through the observation bubble was a large
part of why he stayed in the Constitution for so long.  Moreover, unlike
the fascinating but now-familiar view of Earth from orbit,
this is a view he hasn't
had since the Mars expedition.

He tries to recall how he would have felt back when his body was all
he had, tries to summon the feeling he would have known had he been on
this voyage only in [his original body.] 
it's no good.  Though he knows intellectually this is one of the most
impressive sights he has ever seen with the  eyes he was born with.
%fixme
\end{quotation}
  Even so, he still refers to himself as a human and maintains
 continuity with his past experience.

	Barnes shows with a fairly smooth progression how Louie
	develops to dislike the limited experience he obtains living
	life in his normal body, how he discards his body, and how he
	continues to evolve.  No where in this progression are there
	sharp discontinuities in perception or thought.  Louie moves
	in small enough steps that he never really has to face the big
	question of what he has become; he only has to look at himself
	in comparison to yesterday's self.


	On the other hand, Carla Tynan makes a concerted effort to
	remain human.  She spends a good portion of every day in her
	physical body experiencing the world.  The treatment of Carla
	is one of the weakest parts of the book because it's hard to
	believe that she would change so little.  Also, it's an
	annoyingly convenient way to avoid having to write about
	non-human intelligences.  However, in Barnes's defense, it is
	in character for Carla to attempt to maintain her humanity.
	Also, it fits in well with Louie's belief that a large part of
	what defines an individual is what they think of themselves.

	If the two incidents of `uploading' are the culmination in an
	exercise of stripping away traditional aspects of individual
	identity, then perhaps all we are left with is this core
	reflexive definition.  Certainly, it is not as convenient as a
	concrete definition based in biology.  However, by the end of
	the narrative, very little has not changed about Carla and
	Louie.



\section*{Tying it Back to Reality}

	In many ways, \mos\ is a dark tale about the methodical
	step-by-step process of change.  No one knew that a nuclear
	strike in the arctic would dramatically change Earth's weather,
	threatening global destruction.  While those who considered
	XV's effects probably realized that it would trivialize
	sexuality and reduce inner feelings to public spectacles, 
	their cries were inadequate to stop its deployment.
	Certainly, those who warned that an optimized digital network
	would lead to viruses and spying realized the danger after it
	was too late.The changes in all these situations were probably
	incremental, perhaps even unnoticed, but the long-range
	effects were profound.  

\mos\ was compelling because unlike
	other disaster scenarios, it captured  both the incremental
	nature of these changes and their inevitability.  Just as
	John Klieg realizes that regardless of whether he is there to
	license technology,someone will utilize it, the reader sees
	that many of the interactions behind the technology and
	society of \mos\ are beyond control.  Moreover, the way in which these
	forces interact isn't all that different from the interactions
	between society and technology in the real world.  Who could
	have predicted the chain of events that lead from the use of
	primitive computing machines in atomic bomb research to the
	growth of world-wide digital networks?  Who knows where the
	social and technical pressures associated with these networks
	will drive us?  \mos\ captures the essence of this
	uncertainty.

However, \mos\ is not an altogether dark story:  along with each new
	challenge and disaster come positive benefits.  Certainly, the
	transitions are traumatic, but at least in the case of \mos\
	the world looks like it may eventually benefit from the
	technology and growth accompanying the disaster.  Admittedly,
	there is no guarantee that reality will always have a happy
	ending, but there is hope.

\end{document}
