Data transfer thoughts

[vass]

As background, here's what I understand from canon: with Breq's ancillary implants, and her experience using them and having been part of a ship, she can receive and process data that normal humans can't. Also memory works differently for her. Also anyone with the standard comms implants, including her, can receive visual input from a ship or station they're connected to, and (in some cases - I'm not sure how it works on stations) the AIs can receive visual and audio from them as if looking through their eyes and listening through their ears (but cannot read thoughts, although can make good guesses if they know the person well.)

So, with all that in mind... can Breq send pictures to Mercy of Kalr, from memory? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking it'd depend on how normal humans encode visual information in their memories, how AIs encode visual information, and whether ancillaries are closer in that respect to humans or AIs (I can see a case for either. Strigan seemed to think way more like humans, based on the surgery involved, but Strigan knew considerably less about ancillaries than Mercy of Kalr's Medic, and Medic's never worked with ancillaries either.) It might also make a difference whether the picture was something Breq's seen with her own eyes in this body, since Justice of Toren, or something One Esk saw in the past that Breq remembers.

I'm also curious about exactly how much data (all the time, I mean, not what she deliberately sends) Mercy of Kalr is getting from Breq, compared to what ships get from their human officers, and compared to what ships get from their own ancillaries. I'm guessing more than the former but less than the latter, but I'm curious about the specifics.

Thoughts?

Comments

[archangelbeth]

I have no answers, not even theories, but I suddenly crave a chapter -- even a teeny one! -- from Mercy's point of view.

[vass]

Me too. So much.

[kaberett]

... yeah you've sold me on that, too!