Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle #1)

by Neal Stephenson

In other words, he thinks that these creatures are no more rational than a trap, where an animal seizing a piece of bait pulls a string that fires a gun. A savage watching the trap kill the animal might suppose it to be rational. But the trap is not rational—the man who contrived the trap is. Now, if you—the ingenious Dr. Leibniz—contrive a machine that gives the impression of thinking—is it really thinking, or merely reflecting your genius?” “You could as well have asked: are we thinking? Or merely reflecting God’s genius?” “Suppose I had asked it, Doctor—what would your answer be?” “My answer, sir, is both.” “Both? But that’s impossible. It has to be one or the other.” “I do not agree with you, Mr. Waterhouse.” “If we are mere mechanisms, obeying rules laid down by God, then all of our actions are predestined, and we are not really thinking.” “But Mr. Waterhouse, you were raised by Puritans, who believe in predestination.” “Raised by them, yes…” Daniel said, and let it hang in the air for a while. “You no longer accept predestination?” “It does not resonate sweetly with my observations of the world, as a good hypothesis ought to.” Daniel sighed. “Now I see why Newton has chosen the path of Alchemy.” “When you say he chose that path, you imply that he must have rejected another. Are you saying that your friend Newton explored the idea of a mechanically determined brain, and rejected it?” “It may be he explored it, if only in his dreams and nightmares.” Leibniz raised his ...