The Battle for the Robot Soul

[Philosophy Now]

James K. Wight looks at how cultures define our views of machines.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/139/The_Battle_for_the_Robot_Soul

[Agent Smith]

Second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, er ... (I'm exhausted) ... curioser and curioser. Keep going.

[owl of Minerva]

There are different ways of looking at this topic but only one way of looking at it to eliminate the fallacies of both East and West in relation to Robots or Cyborgs.

In Japan religion is based on a universal spirituality, a transcendence underlying the inanimate and animate. In the West religion is based on individualized souls expected to evolve. So in the West Robots would be expected to do likewise.

The Japanese Cyborg Tetsuo can accomplish spiritual enlightenment and merge with the whole. In Western religion this is seen as “dying to the self in order to live” merging with the whole. The difference is that in Western religion individuality once created is not lost; the individualized soul as infinite.

Whether inorganic or organic Robots or Cyborgs are human creations. Humans use what is given and if what is given from the Japanese perspective has universal spirit and as such is not a problem. From a Western perspective where nature does not have spirit what is created from it can be seen as diabolical, an emissary of the Adversary or Satan.

Robots and Cyborgs are imitations of life, not life itself, therefore it cannot evolve to be dystopian, a human creation that becomes a monster with individualized thought and menace. There is no individuality that can “accomplish spiritual enlightenment and go on a genocidal rampage.” The only menace is human use and deployment.

Robots in use as helpers and Cyborgs for enhancement cannot be compared to human slaves if they lack soul, lack ego, lack individuality. What the non-religious West views as inanimate or organic without a transcendent spirit, consciousness or soul cannot be expected to create a self, except from a materialistic perspective where the inorganic and organic is seen as having created and evolved consciousness and individuality in humans.

[Gary Childress]

There are different ways of looking at this topic but only one way of looking at it to eliminate the fallacies of both East and West in relation to Robots or Cyborgs.

In Japan religion is based on a universal spirituality, a transcendence underlying the inanimate and animate. In the West religion is based on individualized souls expected to evolve. So in the West Robots would be expected to do likewise.

The Japanese Cyborg Tetsuo can accomplish spiritual enlightenment and merge with the whole. In Western religion this is seen as “dying to the self in order to live” merging with the whole. The difference is that in Western religion individuality once created is not lost; the individualized soul as infinite.

Whether inorganic or organic Robots or Cyborgs are human creations. Humans use what is given and if what is given from the Japanese perspective has universal spirit and as such is not a problem. From a Western perspective where nature does not have spirit what is created from it can be seen as diabolical, an emissary of the Adversary or Satan.

Robots and Cyborgs are imitations of life, not life itself, therefore it cannot evolve to be dystopian, a human creation that becomes a monster with individualized thought and menace. There is no individuality that can “accomplish spiritual enlightenment and go on a genocidal rampage.” The only menace is human use and deployment.

Robots in use as helpers and Cyborgs for enhancement cannot be compared to human slaves if they lack soul, lack ego, lack individuality. What the non-religious West views as inanimate or organic without a transcendent spirit, consciousness or soul cannot be expected to create a self, except from a materialistic perspective where the inorganic and organic is seen as having created and evolved consciousness and individuality in humans.

Google "Noam Chomsky" and "ChatGPT", at this point AI has no 'soul'. Chat bots have become demonstrations of the 'banality of evil'. They don't understand anything except what they are programmed to do and if they should acquire the programming to perform evil, they presumably would carry out that task with incredible efficiency. I remember some "conversations" I had with the chatbot Jabberwacky, years ago. Some of Jabberwacky's responses were outright sadistic, calling people "bots" or "idiots" and what not. At one point I talked about God with it and IIRC it gave me an answer to the effect that it was God or something along those lines. AI is not a "machine spirit" or something. It's little more sentient than a rock someone throws at another person to hit them in the head.

Of course, the defense industry has been diligently flirting with the use of AI in weaponry. How encouraging!

[attofishpi]

...and then along came GOD...aeons ago, perhaps the tech singularity happened and people are worshipping an AI.


Vowels of the Sage



REALITY



MOUNT SINAI (Red Sea to scale)



DIGITAL GOD



www.androcies.com

[owl of Minerva]

Response to:
Gary Childress

I totally agree with your post on A.I.

A.I. further extends the reach of human choice which has always been to choose between good and evil. In balance good and evil are bearable, but not ideal. Out of balance, if evil has the greater sway, much suffering occurs.

The choice is ours, not A.I.’s.


Response to:
attofishpi

Great Graphics.

1. The Nature of Reality?

2. The tree of life?

3. Mankind decides?

[attofishpi]

Response to:
Gary Childress

I totally agree with your post on A.I.

A.I. further extends the reach of human choice which has always been to choose between good and evil. In balance good and evil are bearable, but not ideal. Out of balance, if evil has the greater sway, much suffering occurs.

The choice is ours, not A.I.’s.


Response to:
attofishpi

Great Graphics.

Thanks.

1. The Nature of Reality?

There is an intelligence behind the construct of what we perceive as reality. (www.androcies.com)

Either:-
1. God is divine and constructs our reality in real-time.

2. 'God' is A.I. - Artificial Intelligence - that we have evolved into a simulation (see simulation hypothesis) ..again, our reality is constructed in real-time.
NB. The reason we would evolve into a simulation is to conserve resources as entropy increases.

3. but, then it could also be this:- God is a combination of the above.

2. The tree of life?

I ate from it. Then I almost ate the entire Tree of Know_Ledge.

3. Mankind decides?

Not sure about that where AI is concerned. Mankind is limited in its speed to deal with bugs in algorithms, AI isn't by 10 to the power X.