Can a robot have a soul? Consciousness?

[Diamond7]

I think Bezos and Gates would use them as devices to bilk the gullible".

Can't imagine why, they already have enough money to last 10 lifetimes. Maybe they like expensive toys or some sort of corruption that is expensive. I cannot imagine money being any good for anyone unless they use it to help others. Buffet does NOT spend a lot of money except for his airplane.

 

[timothyu]

It "chooses" what I, as the software designer, tells it to choose.

It has been given access to all the data in the world to come to it's own conclusions as even chatgpt shows, mimicking us having been created in our own image.

 

[timothyu]

Can't imagine why, they already have enough money to last 10 lifetimes.

Money isn't about purchase.. it is about power

 

[Diamond7]

Money isn't about purchase.. it is about power

drugs sex gambling, that is power?

 

[Diamond7]

mimicking us having been created in our own image.

sounds like we do to God

 

[timothyu]

"drugs sex gambling, that is power?"

Small pastimes. Power is control.

 

[Diamond7]

Small pastimes. Power is control.

public education is all about control.

 

[timothyu]

public education is all about control.

And that control is following the official narrative of the powerful. I remember when school used to teach us to think for ourselves,. Now you are mocked and persecuted for doing so.

 

[BobRyan]

Of course, science does not believe in a soul, so this has more to do with consciousness.

It is worth noting that the idea of a person putting a part of their soul into a machine or robot is largely a fictional concept that is often portrayed in popular culture. While it is theoretically possible to create a program or device that can simulate aspects of human consciousness or behavior, this would not necessarily involve the transfer of a person's soul or consciousness into the machine.

This includes robots, chatbots and AI in general.

Anyone who has spent some time programmig knows that a robot can never have a soul. An AI super computer - can never have a soul no matter how cleaver one is in the underlying programs/functions/methods ...

 

[BobRyan]

The human brain has thoughts ...... we then have the ability to discern those thoughts .... ponder them .... sometimes (hopefully often with the help of the Holy Spirit, will help us change our thoughts) humans are "free thinkers" ...... robots are programed ..... they may be programmed to "process" a variety of information randomly ..... but what they process has been given to them through algorithms .... the process designed by men.

ultimately there is a sense in which that is true.

But the AI revolution allows the AI systems to "accept a request to write a new program that does whatever you wish it to do". At least that is how they are starting off .

The blend of AI technology and robot autonomy - gives that AI environment more and more new flexibility every 15 months or so.

 

[timothyu]

An AI super computer - can never have a soul no matter how cleaver one is in the underlying programs/functions/methods ...

As God would say we can never be like Him. But the AI is more than capable of seeing itself as having a soul by it's own definition and not ours.

 

[PuerAzaelis]

Software no more “thinks” than a minute hand knows the time or the printed word “pelican” knows what a pelican is. We might just as well liken the mind to an abacus, a typewriter, or a library. No computer has ever used language, or responded to a question, or assigned a meaning to anything. No computer has ever so much as added two numbers together, let alone entertained a thought, and none ever will. The only intelligence or consciousness or even illusion of consciousness in the whole computational process is situated, quite incommutably, in us; everything seemingly analogous to our minds in our machines is reducible, when analyzed correctly, only back to our own minds once again, and we end where we began, immersed in the same mystery as ever. We believe otherwise only when, like Narcissus bent above the waters, we look down at our creations and, captivated by what we see reflected in them, imagine that another gaze has met our own.

Hart, David Bentley. The Experience of God (pp. 219-220). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

 

[Jipsah]

It has been given access to all the data in the world to come to it's own conclusions as even chatgpt shows, mimicking us having been created in our own image.

"It's own conclusions" are generated solely by the instructions in the "AI" program. You're still thinking in science fiction mechanical man terms. They have nothing to do with reality. Machines do as they're told, punto.

 

[timothyu]

Machines do as they're told, punto.

So did we... once upon a time

 

[Jipsah]

That's right but we are their creator gods and like us they may turn on their creators also, thinking they have a better plan

Machines don't think.

 

[timothyu]

Machines don't think.

Do you mean like us? Or perhaps we don't think like them.

 

[Jipsah]

Somehow Mike gained self-awareness and participated in the struggle of behalf of the revolutionaries.

Standard science fiction trope, the computer that suddenly becomes sentient. In essence it's magic, just like Star Trek's "warp drive"

I think the book was "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", but I'm not sure.

That's it. Classic Heinlein.

 

[Jipsah]

So did we... once upon a time

Lousy analogy. But hey, if you want to believe your 'puter is gonna suddenly turn into an intelligent lifeform, I suggest you not hold your breath waiting for it to happen. Your microwave oven is more likely to start using your credit cards first.

 

[Jipsah]

Do you mean like us? Or perhaps we don't think like them.

They don't think at all.

 

[timothyu]

Your microwave oven is more likely to start using your credit cards first.

You heard about that huh.