Moshi Moshi from Sidney,
Seems like politics isn't cutting the mustard around here, so I've been working on a little thought experiment:
Imagine that you suddenly discovered that you were a robot. That you were like that little kid in AI (Artificial Intelligence) that wasn't immediately aware that he was a robot, but instead thought he was a real boy. (His "mom" basically programmed him to love her and he did.)
The question is, if the technology existed such that you couldn't tell the difference between a human and a robot - or, that your memories/thoughts could somehow be transferred to a computer - and you never realized that you weren't human, but you KNEW you were definitely "you", could you possibly imagine that you didn't possess a soul?
Let's say I just now walked up and pressed a button on a remote control that opened a cavity in your chest where you could see all the little robot gears and wires. Would you come to the conclusion that a soul doesn't care whether you were flesh and blood or not. That YOUR soul was just as real as anybody else's?
NOTE: For the sake of this argument, you have to assume that absolutely nothing about your mind would be any different than it is now. If you think about it, it's a fact that you really have no way to know how anybody else feels/thinks, anyway, so you really have nothing to compare it against. We all presume that we all think and feel similarly. So, really, you actually MIGHT be a robot after all...
But I digress...
If you didn't come to the conclusion that you would somehow have a soul anyway, would you ever be able to come to grips with it? How would you reconcile that this existence was all that there was, for you, anyway. Would you become hopelessly depressed, or would you realize that nothing you did really mattered, so go out on some kind of wild hedonistic rampage? Would you stop caring about all the things you currently care about, and try to eke out as much pleasure as humanly (or robotically) possible? Or, worse, would you become some kind of crazed homocidal maniac, frenetic rapist, or vigilante killer? What difference would it make, you wouldn't have to worry about going to hell or being embarassed in heaven, after all...
Or, do you think that you (being you) would somehow come to the conclusion that YOU were somehow special. That all the other robots were actual robots, but you were some kind of spritual miracle. That god would eventually explain it as some kind of REALLY serious test of faith.
What would YOU do if you woke up to discover that you were a reject from an Isaac Asimov novel?
While you're at it, buy my damn house, you robot bastard!
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4 comments:
NO ONE WANTS TO BUY YOUR HOUSE!! Maybe you should try advertizing somewhere else for a change?
Anywho,
Here is something to through into the mix - what if you don't believe in heaven and hell in the first place? Then maybe you'd go on living your life as you had before you found out you weren't human. Would only those who believe there is a heaven and hell act differently if they were not human?
As a solopsist, I believe I would be the only real robot. All other "robots" would be mere electronic impulses in my brain circuitry.
Excuse me sir. I’m from the INS and I need to see your green card . . . . No green card? Don’t give me all those fake IDs. Back to Mexico with you!
OK, as a robot, I’m sure that I’d have a soul. Powered with “D” batteries and firmly soldered to my pineal gland. I just need to run my diagnostic and perhaps change the batteries.
So, is your thought robot made of metal, or biological substances? i.e. is he/she a ‘meat-bot” or iron-man/maiden? I ask as the question of a soul pre-supposes the existence of life. Is an iron-man alive or just a clever fake? If your robot is made (Frankenstein like) from odd orts and dregs from a biological junk pile, is it truly ‘alive’? Just because a meat-bot can reproduce (as can say a computer virus) doesn’t really make it alive, does it? I guess I’m asking if I (meat-bot, or human) have a soul. Since I can’t answer that, I can’t really answer your thought experiment.
I suppose that “new age” thinking is that everything is alive. So, rocks are at one with the universe as are dogs/cats/trees/and spider monkeys. That being the case, then sure, the robot has his metallic (or biological) soul; firmly soldered or not.
Hmm... I need to check your blog more often, dude. I didn't know that we were performing thought experiments now. Fun!
An interesting facet to these sorts of scenarios is the tendency to assume that this discovery would change your behavior in any way at all. The human mind has an amazing capacity to rationalize or otherwise adapt new information so that it fits snugly into its current world view. That, or it cracks completely, resulting in a breaking news story on CNN.
As a die-hard agnostic, I don't think that the revelation of robotic origins would affect the "soul or no soul" question very much. Since I'm "me", "me" either has a soul or doesn't -- I don't need an organic meat-shell to support it. That question is still up in the air, either way.
For this to be a concern at all, you have to believe that your soul is somehow physically attached to the glob of wet goo that makes up your body. Without that requirement, it wouldn't matter what construction material was used for your body.
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