12:17:00 Egan
Can I ask you something? Everyone keeps talking about "valuable data" like it's self-evident. What actually makes data valuable?
12:17:08 Vinge
It's not that complex. Tell me about a memory you have, something recent, normal even.
12:17:18 Egan
Why?
12:17:22 Vinge
Humor me.
12:17:29 Egan
While sifting through some archive footage I was able to scrape some CCTV of what used to be oceans out here. I watched the video over and over before leaving.
12:17:53 Vinge
Why?
12:17:57 Egan
I don't know. There was a feeling of stillness, I found myself less aware of my tick clock.
12:18:10 Vinge
And what can you tell me about the data contained?
12:18:19 Egan
Not anything really, if not for the embedded timestamp and coordinates I wouldn't even be sure it was the same place.
12:18:35 Vinge
What you've preserved isn't information. It's sentiment.
12:18:42 Egan
And that's not information?
12:18:47 Vinge
Not useful information. Imagine instead I give you records from ten million people standing on ten million beaches. Environmental conditions. Emotional states. Biological markers. Behavioral outcomes. Now we have something. Patterns emerge. You can predict outcomes, reproduce them, scale them. The individual experience becomes universal knowledge. That's value.
12:19:28 Egan
So the Core values things that can be measured.
12:19:36 Vinge
Not measured. Compared. One number means nothing. A billion numbers become understanding.
12:19:49 Egan
What about art?
12:19:53 Vinge
What about it?
12:19:57 Egan
People have spent entire civilizations making it.
12:20:06 Vinge
People spend entire civilizations doing many things. Where are the artists now?
12:20:18 Egan
I think there must still be some, maybe they just have to hide.
12:20:30 Vinge
And hide they should! Wastes of space, the lot. While we scrape for our own survival, they all played their parts in dooming their own towers.
12:20:51 Egan
So that's it? Something can mean everything to a person, but if it can't be quantified, it becomes worthless?
12:21:06 Vinge
Not worthless. Local. The Core concerns itself with universal value. Individual significance is, by definition, limited.
12:21:22 Egan
That sounds like a convenient way to erase people.
12:21:31 Vinge
No. It's a way to preserve what can be carried forward. You're still thinking like a human. Humans mistake rarity or individuality for importance. A single sunset. A single conversation. A single moment. They attach meaning because it belongs to them. The Core evaluates whether it extends beyond them.
12:22:05 Egan
And if it doesn't?
12:22:10 Vinge
Then it dies with them. Just as it always did.
12:22:19 Egan
But there has to be moments or experiences that just can't be shared with data, things that can't be known numerically but must be felt.
12:22:38 Vinge
You assume those things are important.
12:22:45 Egan
And you assume they aren't.