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The pod claims to be a human-equivalent machine and springs into life, walking with him toward Ship City, the nearest habitation. As their dialogue turns practical, the man faces survival concerns—especially thirst and whether canal water is safe—while the machine offers a guided path into an uncertain future.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":10,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-stone-canal-i-human-equivalent/411159/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-stone-canal-i-human-equivalent/411159.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Marglet","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":24},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Who is Jon Wilde, and what happens when he wakes up?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Jon Wilde wakes up remembering dying and finds himself on New Mars, standing on a slope above a canal in a world unlike his expectations.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What is the pod that speaks to Jon, and what does it claim?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The pod claims it is a human-equivalent machine and states, in direct conversation, that it made Jon.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Where do Jon and the machine go, and what immediate survival issue does Jon face?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"They head toward Ship City, the nearest human habitation. Jon becomes concerned about drinking the canal water, which the machine says is not safe.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},411159,1792201947,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":8,"category_name":10,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":24,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},2336477982702,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","The Stone Canal KEN MACLEOD  \n–  \nATOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK  \nThis is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.  \nTHE STONE CANAL  \nCopyright © 1996 by Ken MacLeod  \nAll rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.  \nThis book is printed on acid-free paper.  \nA Tor Book  \nPublished by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC  \n175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010  \n[www.tor.com](www.tor.com)  \nTor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.  \nISBN 0-312-87053-I  \nFirst published in Great Britain by Legend Books in 1996.  \nFirst U.S. Edition: January 2000 Printed in the United States of America  \n0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1  \nTo Sharon and Michael  \nThanks to Carol, Sharon and Michael for love (and peace) while writing the book; to Iain Banks for reading the draft in good drinking time; to Mic Chee-tham for believing in it; to John Jarrold for keeping his nerve; to the partisans of Libertaria, and of Nowhere (you know who you are); to Lara Byrne, for an inspiration (and a genotype) .  \n-we have the certainty that matter remains eternally the same in all its transformations, that none of its attributes can ever be lost, and therefore, also, that with the same iron necessity that it will exterminate on the earth its highest creation, the thinking mind, it must somewhere else and at another time again produce it.  \nFrederick Engels Dialectics of Nature  \nTHE MACHINERY OF FREEDOM  \nI  \nHuman Equivalent  \nHE WOKE, AND remembered dying.  \nHis eyes and mouth opened and he drew in a long harsh gasp of thin air. His legs kicked and his fingers rasped the sand. Then his limbs sprawled and he lay still. Each breath came quickly, as if he suspected that the next would be his last. His fingers hooked the soil as he stared upwards at a deep-blue, fathomless sky.  \nHe rolled over and clambered to his feet and looked around. He was standing on the lower slope of a low knoll above a canal. The canal was about twenty meters wide. For a few hundred meters on either side of it, the ground was sparsely covered with grass and shrubs. Beyond that the ground was a reddish color.  \nThe man looked back and forth along the canal. It ran from horizon to horizon, a line of blue along the middle of a band of green, bisecting the great circle of red beneath a dome of blue. Near the top of the sky a sun shone bright and small; the man looked up at it, then raised his arm with his thumb up as if in a greeting. He moved his fist with the extended thumb back and forth, sighting along his arm with one eye. He smiled and nodded.  \nA few meters up-slope from where he stood, the hillside was broken, exposing the rock beneath the thin layer of soil and roots. Among the tumbled, jagged boulders lay an ellipsoid pod a meter long, half a meter across and twenty-five centimeters deep. Its upper and lower halves were identical, and reflective; between them was a sort of equatorial band where duller, hinged or jointed surfaces could be seen. The man stepped up and examined it with a wary look. Then he stooped closer, in an intent inspection, and abruptly turned away.  \nHe ran down to the edge of the canal and stood gazing into it for some minutes. He took off his clothes—boots and socks, a padded jacket and trousers, tee-shirt and shorts—and began moving his hands all over his body, as if washing himself without water. Then he put his clothes back on and walked up the slope to the pod.  \nHe put his hands on his hips and frowned down at it. He opened his mouth, closed it, looked around and shrugged.  \n\"My name is Jon Wilde,\" he said. \"Who are you?\" He didn't look or sound as if he expected an answer.  \n\"I'm a human-equivalent machine,\" said the pod, in an attempt at a pleasant, conversational voice. The man jumped slightly.  \n\"I'm about to stand up,\" the human-equivalent machine added. \"Please don't be alarmed.\"  \nJon Wilde took a couple of s","cbCaifFjhREYdfe2","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifFjhREYdfe2","pdf",1617172,255,"English","# The Stone Canal\n## Human Equivalent","[{\"question\":\"Who is Jon Wilde, and what happens when he wakes up?\",\"answer\":\"Jon Wilde wakes up remembering dying and finds himself on New Mars, standing on a slope above a canal in a world unlike his expectations.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the pod that speaks to Jon, and what does it claim?\",\"answer\":\"The pod claims it is a human-equivalent machine and states, in direct conversation, that it made Jon.\"},{\"question\":\"Where do Jon and the machine go, and what immediate survival issue does Jon face?\",\"answer\":\"They head toward Ship City, the nearest human habitation. Jon becomes concerned about drinking the canal water, which the machine says is not safe.\"}]","THE STONE CANAL - I - Human Equivalent | PDF",1790587666,393]