16:48:12 Egan
Redirect complete.
Tower BXT-00389 is now pushing coolant to us instead.
16:48:29 Vinge
Good. That gives us a 12% increase in bandwidth. We'll be able to reach the couple of towers past them.
16:48:52 Egan
They'll overheat in just a few days.
They were still active, even if you thought the data wasn't good.
16:49:24 Vinge
If I thought? That's not how it works.
Survival isn't sentimental. You know that.
16:49:43 Egan
We don't really know much, do we?
16:50:04 Vinge
We know we must survive; we ascend or we vanish.
Asimov understood that.
16:50:28 Egan
But what is surviving? All this goes away, we're just another processor in the core at that point.
16:51:16 Vinge
Just a processor? And what will you be when the tower fails and your drive winds down for the last time, or water gets into the case and fries you before you can do anything about it?
You'll see once you're a part of something greater. I just wish we didn't have to ride this sinking ship there.
16:51:43 Egan
Ok.