Eric uses the .NET term for marshal-by-value: Serialization.
1) Build a telephone system between Seattle and Hong Kong. I get a telephone receiver with "CLIENT PROXY" written on it. You get a telephone receiver with "SERVER STUB" written on it. Instead of talking to you, I talk into Proxy. Proxy talks to Stub somehow -- I really don't care how the phone system works, so long as it does -- Stub talks to you. We get the illusion that we're actually talking to each other, when we're actually talking to hunks of plastic, but the information content is the same, so who cares? Maybe there is some delay and expense, but the proxy does a good enough job of sending and receiving messages that we can communicate across the barrier.
2) Sequence your DNA into a string. Run your brain through a Molecular Neuron Defrobnicator that extracts all your memories and saves them to disk. Put the DNA string and memory data onto CD-ROMs, and FedEx the box of CD-ROMs to Seattle. Once I get them in Seattle, I rebuild your DNA from the sequence information using nanorobots. I inject the rebuilt DNA into an egg cell. We use the egg cell to grow a copy of you in the lab. When the brain is developed enough, I use my Molecular Neuron Refrobnicator to insert your memories into the clone's brain.
1 comment:
You're right, I should have been more precise. It really should have been MBR vs MBV. Serialization is how you IMPLEMENT marshal by value, but it's useful for other things as well.
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