While it would be difficult to re-work the idea into a test, it has occured to me that a tremendous proof of an AI's having been granted an immortal soul would be its voluntary request -- without any sort of prior suggestion from its creators, other than their granting it exposure to certain literature and/or audio-video material -- to come into some sort of sensory-contact (e.g. visual receptors of some sort) and/or geographic proximity of a bread-wafer consectrated at a Catholic Mass. Then if the same AI began to offer prayer and adoration to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, doubt would be removed even further about its having a soul.
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Holy Ghost in The Shell award?
"Holy Ghost in The Shell award"
My gay tamagochi thinks it's going to hell.
So, all the AI nonsense stripped away, this person is arguing that conversion to Catholicism is "tremendous proof" of the existance of a soul?
There was an Asimov story about a robot, I think named QT, that got sentience and questioned who created it. It figured that since it was superior to humans there must have been someone superior to it that created it. The humans built a robot in front of it, but it said "Oh you are just tools of the creator."
By this poster's reasoning (and I use the term loosely), this means that humans DON'T have souls UNLESS they spontaneously and compulsively start to praise God when within sight and proximity of a communion wafer. In fact, this behavior would be a better example of programming (i.e., brainwashing) than of any putative soul.
If I developed an AI, and it started to praise God, preaching and praying without being programmed that way, I'd format the hard drive and go back to my notes.
Well, thanks for the nomination. I had no idea my post on CAF had found it's way to a board such as this -- what fun!! :)http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s1c1.htm#28
***28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
'From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."'(Acts 17:26-28).***
Man's inborn propensity for religious expression is a kind of evidence of his rational, immortal soul. No other species on Earth displays the behavior we call "worship." In a similar manner, it can be noted that no other species creates art! That too is a kind of evidence for man's rational, immortal soul.
As you can see if you visit the CAF thread from which my statement is lifted, the participants in the discussion hold a wide range of views (scientific materialism, orthodox Catholicism) and have a wide range of backgrounds (retired professor of philosophy, ordinary joe).
If you are so certain that such speculation is just utterly ridiculous, why not come join in the fray at CAF and demonstrate why that is so? Come enthrall us with your acumen. :p
May Our Lord bless you and keep you, and may you open your hearts to the graces He wishes to bestow upon you.
In Christ.
IC XC NIKA
http://www.michaelsbradleyjr.net/
You were talking about building a robot to see if it started praying...How is that not deserving of inclusion within our gallery of the religiously retarded.
Yay, more idiocy from bob.In a similar manner, it can be noted that no other species creates art!
This is wrong, all the great apes have been known to do so, as have pigs, elephants and dolphins.
If that is the level of idiocy to expect, NO FUCKING THANK YOU!
My question is if Bob'd reconsider his OWN faith if the AI would, without any sort of prior suggestion from its creators (including granting it exposure to biased liturature and/or audio-video material), turn Buddhist. Or even better, SubGenius :) Actually, what should really be done is take several identical AIs and educate them differently - as with children from different backgrounds - and see if the one raised Catholic would be perceived by Catholics as having a soul, while the others, surprisingly, just wouldn't seem "intelligent enough", not to mention having a soul. But first we'll need some very serious improvements in AI to get this experiment going...
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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