First Robot able to Show Emotion & develop bonds (Humans)

by dhw, Friday, September 03, 2010, 12:43 (5003 days ago) @ xeno6696

MATT: First, let me get my usual nitpicks out of the way: I haven't thrown out the idea of a soul; I think the question is... misguided. If I found out tomorrow that consciousness comes purely from matter, it wouldn't change the way I think anymore than if I found out it came from a divine essence: The fact that I can sit here and declare "I am," is irrelevant to (and supersedes) the idea of a soul in my book. But that's my Buddhist tendencies creeping in; the idea of a soul might be a more powerful question for you. Maybe you should fill the void; I find it difficult to see what differences it would make. Maybe I could make a good Glaucon to your Plato?-I'm flattered, but hey, didn't Xenophon describe Glaucon as an ignoramus? Besides, I'm the older brother (more like grandfather actually), and have learnt a lot more from you than you will ever learn from me!
 
However, let me try to fill the void. I should put "soul" in inverted commas ... it's just a word to describe that part of us which we can't explain ... the mind, if you like, as opposed to the brain. If there is a dimension beyond the material one we know ... a dimension in which our identity exists independently of our body ... that will be the dimension in which David's Universal Intelligence exists, and in which we ourselves may survive physical death. You must remember that I have an open mind on NDEs and OBEs. If we found out tomorrow that consciousness came purely from matter, I would be 99% certain that there was no life after death, in which case the question of God's existence would be purely academic. If he does exist, I don't need him to give my life meaning, and he certainly doesn't need me, so as you say, it wouldn't change the way I think. But so long as there is a possibility of life after death, there remains the possibility that some aspects of religion may be true, and God's nature may become directly relevant to us. So if you do succeed in building your autonomous Bob, and if I'm still around, I shall have mixed feelings: sad that it'll all be over soon, sad that I shall never know what power created all this beauty, and relieved that I shall never know what power created all this suffering.