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. I'm not sure about you."
"The same, vice versa."
"That's fun, too."
"Richard, let's stick to the subject. Is the sperm in a male body
self-aware?"
"I hope not."
"Or the ova in a female?"
"That's your question to answer, beautiful; I've never been female."
"And you are dodging questions just to tease me. A spermatozoon is not
self-aware and neither is an ovum-and never mind silly remarks; that's one
boundary. I, an adult human zygote, am self-aware. And you are, too, however
dimly this is true for males. Second boundary. Very well, Richard; at what point
from the freshly fertilized ovum to the mature zygote now named 'Richard' did
self-awareness enter the picture? Answer me. Don't dodge it and, please, no
silly remarks."
I still thought it was a silly question but I tried to give it a serious
answer. "Very well. / have always been self-aware."
"A serious answer. Please!"
"Gwen-Hazel, that answer is as serious as I can make it. So far as I know I
have lived forever and have been self-aware the whole time. All this talk about
things that went on before 2133-the alleged year of my alleged birth-is just
hearsay and not very convincing. I go along with the gag to keep from annoying
people or getting funny looks. And when I hear astronomers talk about the world
being created in a big bang eight or sixteen or thirty billion years before I
was born-if I was bom; I don't recall it-that's a horse laugh
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