It's only given a bit of dialogue, but Stephen Baxter's mention of how artificial intelligences are treated in The Wheel of Ice makes sense. This bit of dialogue is spoken by Luis Reyes, the ambassador from the Planetary Ethics Commission, on page 116 when he's inspecting the destroyed mining machine. Despite the brevity of its expression, the idea that an artificial intelligence could become distressed or feel guilt is something I'd never considered before.
It's a concept that's new to me, and yet something that would be needed to make any artificial intelligence human - particularly if it's an AI designed to carry out the objectives of a company but that finds itself physically unable to do so.
This idea may seem to underscore the notion of a mind/body split, but it does just the opposite. It's the body's failing that throws the mind into distress, suggesting a direct connection. The two parts of the whole (even the machine whole) are out of harmony and so it's not so much a moment that emphasizes the separation of body and mind, but that highlights the importance of one to the other and vice versa.
Interestingly, earlier in the book (on page 107) the Doctor passes a comment about the damage imprisonment will do to the colony's children's souls. This sentiment doesn't get developed any further, but once more prods the issue of how the mind and the body are connected.
Since this concern runs parallel with that of Reyes' concern for the AI in the destroyed mining machine, it's fair to guess that the entity from the book's prologue must be an intelligence of sorts, one who was possibly the bigger body from which the moon called Mnemosyne came. Perhaps it was even the intelligent system of a ship, and the Blue Dolls that the TARDIS crew and heads of the Wheel have now encountered en masse are that ship's security system, or its own crew.
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