"It is the essence of who I am," said Poe. "It is the spark of the divine within me. It is the part of me that will survive death."

"In your understanding of these matters, does every living human being have a soul?"

"Absolutely."

"No exceptions?"

"None."

Deshawn had moved out into the well and was pointing back at Karen, seated at the plaintiff's table. "Now, please look at Ms. Bessarian here. Does she have a soul?"

Karen was all alert attention, her green eyes bright.

Poe's voice was emphatic. "No."

"Why not? How can you tell?"

"She's — it's — a manufactured object. You might as well ask whether a stove or a car has a soul."

"I understand your assertion. But other than an a priori belief, Dr. Poe, how can you tell that Ms. Bessarian doesn't have a soul? What test can you conduct to demonstrate that you do have a soul, and she does not?"

"There is no such test."

"Indeed there is not," said Deshawn.

"Objection," said Lopez. "That's not a question."

"Sustained," said Judge Herrington.

Deshawn nodded contritely. "All right," he said. "But this is: Dr. Poe, do you believe that God will judge you after death?"

Poe was quiet for a moment. He had the look of an animal that knew it was being hunted. "Yes, I do."

"And what is it that God is judging?"

"Whether I've been moral or immoral in my life."

"Yes, yes, but what part of you is He judging? Remember, by this point, you're dead. He's obviously not judging your now-cold body, is He?"

"No."

"And He's not judging the electrically dead hunk of matter that was your brain, is He?"

"No."

"So what is He judging? What part of you?"

"He's judging my soul."

Deshawn looked at the jury, and spread his arms. "Well, that hardly seems fair. I mean, surely it was your body or your brain that undertook any immoral acts. Your soul was just along for the ride."

"Well…"

"Isn't that the case? When you talked earlier in your fancy philosophical terms about a rider within, about a true consciousness that accompanies the zombie body, the rider you were referring to is really the soul, isn't it? Isn't that your contention fundamentally?" Deshawn let the last word echo in the air for a moment.

"Well, I…"

"If I'm mistaken, Dr. Poe, please correct me. In plain, layman's terms, there is no meaningful distinction between our true consciousness and what the rest of us understand to be the soul, correct?"

"That would not be my formulation…"

"If there is a difference, please articulate it, professor."

Poe opened his mouth but said nothing; he looked quite like one of those fishy ancestors he had enumerated earlier.

"Dr. Poe?" said Deshawn. "The court is waiting for your answer."

Poe closed his mouth, took a deep breath through his nose, and seemed to think. "In layman's terms," he said at last, "I concede that the two terms are conflated."

"You concede that your philosophical notion of consciousness superimposed on the zombie, and the religious notion of the soul superimposed on the biological body, are essentially the same thing?"

After a moment, Poe nodded.

"A verbal response, please, professor — for the record."

"Yes."

"Thank you. Now, we were talking a few moments ago about God judging souls after death. Why is it that God does that?"

Poe fidgeted in his chair. "I — I don't understand the question."

Deshawn spread his arms. "I mean, what's the sense in God judging souls? Don't they just do whatever God intended them to do?"

Poe narrowed his eyes; he was clearly wary for a trap, but couldn't see it. Nor, frankly, could I. "No, no. The soul chooses to do good or evil — and, eventually God holds it accountable for those choices."

"Ah," said Deshawn. "So the soul has volition, does it?"

Poe looked at Lopez, as if seeking guidance. I saw her shrug infinitesimally. The professor shifted his gaze back to Deshawn. "Yes, of course," he said at last.

"That's the whole point. God has given us free will, and it's the soul that exercises that free will."

"In other words," said Deshawn, "the soul can make any choice it wants, regardless of God's wishes, correct?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, God wishes us to be good — to follow the precepts of the Ten Commandments, say, or the Sermon on the Mount — but He doesn't force us to be good. We can do whatever we please."

"Yes, of course."

"And, indeed, since the soul is the part of us that really makes choices, then it's in fact the soul that can do whatever it pleases, correct?"

"Well, yes."

"Now, what about the physical nature of the soul? Prior to death, is it localized in the individual?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean it's not dispersed hither and yon — it's a localized phenomenon, right? It exists within a specific person."

Lopez tried again. "Your honor, objection. Relevance."

But Herrington was enthralled. "Overruled, Ms. Lopez — and don't bother me with that objection again during this testimony. Professor Poe, answer Mr. Draper's question. Is the soul localized in a specific person?"

Poe looked flustered at the by-play between the judge and the lawyer who was paying him for his testimony, but at last he spoke. "I— yes."

"And after death?" asked Deshawn. "What happens to the soul then?"

"It leaves the body."

"Physically? Materially? As an energy wave, or some such?"

"The soul is immaterial, and it transcends our notions of space and time."

"How convenient for it!" said Deshawn. "But let's take that a step further, shall we?

The soul doesn't need to breathe, correct? Nor does it need to eat? That is, it can continue to exist just fine without the infrastructure of a biological body to support it?"

"Of course," said Poe. "The soul is immortal and immaterial."

"And yet it has a specific location. Your soul, prior to death is inside you, and mine is inside me, correct?"

Poe spread his arms. "If you're going to ask me to point to the soul on an MRI or X-ray, Mr. Draper, I freely admit that I can't do that."

"Not at all, not at all. I just want to make sure we're on the same page. We do agree that the soul is localized — yours is within you, and mine is within me."

"Yes, that's true," said Poe.

"And the soul is mobile after the body dies, correct? It can go to heaven?"

"Yes. If God will allow it entrance."

"But could it go somewhere else?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, the soul doesn't change upon death. It still has volition, doesn't it? Your soul hasn't become an automaton, has it? It hasn't become a zombie?"

Poe shifted again in the witness seat. "No."

"Well, then, Dr. Poe, if there is no test you can perform to determine whether a soul is present, if the soul is localized in a specific place, if the soul doesn't require nutrition or other support from a living body, if the soul leaves the body at death, if the soul transcends time and space and can move to a new location after leaving the original body, and if the soul still has freedom to act even after death, then how can you say that, upon the death of the biological Karen Bessarian, her soul did not choose to move into the artificial form seated at the plaintiff's desk?"

"I … ah…"

"Isn't it possible, Dr. Poe? Given the properties of the soul as you yourself have described them, isn't it possible? The biological body of Karen Bessarian is apparently dead. But it's abundantly clear, is it not, that Ms. Bessarian wanted to transfer her personhood to the mechanical form that sits here in this courtroom with us? Given that that was her wish — her soul's wish — isn't it likely that her soul has now taken up residence in that artificial form?"