Robots and black-magick :

I was thinking to something about robots, don't you think that some carzy scientists can try one day to buildt a robot, and to give him a "soul", use something like a voodoo or a black-magick ritual, to make him alive ?

What do you think of it ?
Do you think it's possible to take a soul, or to call/invocate a spirit or a demon to trapped him inside a computer and/or a cyborg body ?



[edit on 3-9-2004 by Nans DESMICHELS]

Ghost in a shell, I robot, deus ex machina...

When they make it it will already have the "soul" inside, I cant imagine a transfer coz you need the source, the target and a transfer medium (thats 3 containers already).

That's a rather disturbing thought, Nans.

I suppose that, depending on what you believe in terms of metaphysics, one might be able to bind an etheric force to a corporeal body in much the same way that a human soul is bound to a human body... but I wouldn't recommend it.

Odds are, there aren't a whole lot of things out there that we really want running around in any kind of physical form... and probably even fewer things that would be happy about the restraint.

Between You, me, and the 'other guy', I was thinking... if I'm still alive in30 or so years, I may start building my new body, so to speak. When I die, I'll just take up housing in the 'machine' if I can. I think it would be awesome to be in a body with the knowledge to fix yourself with other machines!

Forgot one movie: A.I. (such a sad movie, especially if you have an attachment to technology like I do)

If a robot becomes self-aware does it then possess a soul?

Just because you think you are a conscious individual does not mean that you have a soul. There, that is more that one line so i cannot be honestly penalized for that.

The truth is that none of us really know if we have a soul(as in eternal spirit/soul I guess). All we have is perception. Computers are already perceiving things to accomplish certain task which they were programmed to do. To me, it is obvious, that humans are mere programs accomplishing the task which we were programmed to do. Something programmed us; maybe our programmer laughes at the notion that we believe we have "souls".

Maybe as humans we just have one soul. In all fairness the bible does talk about mankind(or atleast the church) being Jesus's bride(singular) I guess i cannot read niggarabish or greek.

My point is just who do think you are that you are worthy enough to live forever? Maybe only robots go to heaven.

I have to agree with Odd on this, I wouldn't want to try to transfer or bind someone else's soul into a robot or somehow contain a demon in one.

Aren't demons usually trying to possess a human host? Somehow I doubt they'd be satisfied with staying in a robotic form and most likely trying to destroy it in an attempt to get out. And in that attempt destroying us in the process.

With advances in AI mankind can create machines aware of their surroundings but the notion of transferring or creating souls for them is a bit far off. Could we give them unique personalities, formulated on a base of set responses for differing stimuli? Yes. Could we provide them with enough processing power to take in new data from the environment and further evolve their response system? Yes. Could we give them the desire to better themselves or to feel the interconnectedness with the world that you get with a sunrise or spending time with a loved one? Somehow I doubt it given the complex interactions between body, mind and spirit.

Definitely an issue that will become more prevelant during the next 20-30 years.

[edit on 3-9-2004 by zakk]

Originally posted by Corinthas
Ghost in a shell, I robot, deus ex machina...

When they make it it will already have the "soul" inside, I cant imagine a transfer coz you need the source, the target and a transfer medium (thats 3 containers already).

Yes, I was thinking about something like the golem legend :

www.ced.appstate.edu...

Also :

The field of Artificial Life examines "life as it could be" based on understanding the principles and simulating the mechanisms of real biological forms. Just as airplanes use the same principles as birds, but have fixed wings, artificial lifeforms may share the same principles, but not the same implementation in chemistry. Every feature of living systems seems wondrous until it is understood: Stored energy, autonomous movement, and even animal communication are no longer miracles, as they are replicated in toys using batteries, motors, and computer chips.

Complex biological forms reproduce by taking advantage of an arbitrarily complex set of auto-catalyzing chemical reactions. Biological life is in control of its own means of reproduction, and this autonomy of design and manufacture is a key element which has not yet been understood or reproduced artificially. To this date, robots - a form of artificial life - are still designed laboriously and constructed by teams of human engineers at great cost. Few robots are available because these costs must be absorbed through mass production that is justified only for toys, weapons, and industrial systems like automatic teller machines.

In the Golem project (Genetically Organized Lifelike Electro Mechanics) we


demo.cs.brandeis.edu...

[edit on 4-9-2004 by Nans DESMICHELS]