[davem]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

You make it sound like such a black and white proposition. I agree that the Ring is not a completely inanimate object. But does it have the ability to analyze a situation and then "decide" whether or not it will "allow" itself to be used? How aware is it? How sentient is it?

Ok, let me try this:

I'd say it is sentient to some degree, but the point is that it is only usable by someone in the 'right' frame of mind (ie someone who has gone a long way down the road to becoming like Sauron, & is able to use it in the only way that it is possible to use it - ie one would not be able to use it to do 'good'. Using it would be very similar to using crack cocaine - the addiction would begin almost instantaneously.

It's also stated that Sauron is "exerting all his power to find it or draw it to himself". Are the Ring's "actions" more "reactions" to this signal that Sauron is broadcasting? You assume that Sauron working on (or through) the Ring means he knows where it is and what it is doing. This need not be so. When I listen to my Walkman, the radio station works through it without knowing where my Walkman is or what it is doing. A computer can act "autonomously", but it obviously does not necessarily follow that it is intelligent or aware. The Ring, when worn, creates a sort of conduit to Sauron -- but clearly it lacks the ability to call out to him or to make a report on its location and situation.

But the Walkman & computer are not 'evil'. I think this is the point. The Ring is evil - evil is a(n im)moral 'force'. Its not a case that the Ring can be used for evil, but that it is evil in & of itself. As if your computer could only be used to access paedophilia because it was designed to do only that & also that if you used your computer you would become instantly addicted to that. More so, as if it was able to draw you to use it, had that purpose as part of its making. That doesn't, I accept, require your computer to be 'autonomous' - but it would bebehaving as if it was.

Also, I notice that you were quick to point out earlier in the thread that Gandalf and Galadriel's ideas about how the Ring works are only theoretical and cannot be relied upon, but are now willing to take Gandalf's speculation that the Ring "decided" to "abandon" Gollum at face value. Which way do you want it?

I'm going by what the Ring does - based on that I think Gandalf's 'speculation' here is correct.