Do we have a soul?

[Fade]

Good point; now how about emotion ?

What about emotion? If it's all chemical/electrical stimulation of the brain then it's not very far fetched to view it as a preprogrammed response to stimulus. Emotion also lends weight to the idea that we are like robots because most people react the same to emotional stimuli. You see a kitten drown, you feel sad. It's pretty basic stuff really.

 

[michel]

What about emotion? If it's all chemical/electrical stimulation of the brain then it's not very far fetched to view it as a preprogrammed response to stimulus.

Again, fair enough; could you mimic it in a computer ?

Are you actually saying that every element of the human brain could be duplicated in a computer ? - how about the heuristic element ?

 

[BucephalusBB]

Good point; now how about emotion ?

Give humanity some time
AI will be able to get emotions somewhere in time..

Humans (and every other living creature) have the need to exist and to breed..
(throwing in evolution here)in the evolutiontheory we started as soup, we became onecelled animals and eventually living beings. Not important here.

But evolution should mean progress. we adapt to our environment and make sure the species can continue. Somewhere in the beginning evolution "figured out" that some AI in our bodies could be in handy. Even emotions can come in handy, they "get us somewhere"
Love can make us breed, hate and anger can protect, just like being shy.. being naugthy again can get us things you couldn't get in another way.

In other words, emotion can certainly be progress. Why would evolution only be put in the hardware and not in our operatingsystem?

I don't know what heuristic means..

 

[Fade]

Again, fair enough; could you mimic it in a computer ?

Are you actually saying that every element of the human brain could be duplicated in a computer ? - how about the heuristic element ?

I'm not saying that it can be done...yet anyway. You have to admit that it isn't outside the realm of possibility though.

Play Lionheads Black & White 2 and tell me that when you smack your creature around it doesn't express a good aproximation of sadness...or anger depending on how you raised it

 

[michel]

Play Lionheads Black & White 2 and tell me that when you smack your creature around it doesn't express a good aproximation of sadness...or anger depending on how you raised it

That's like talking Chinese to me; I guess you must be talking abot a computer game perhaps ?. but that's given me another question to ask, but it would be off topic here.........

 

[Fade]

That's like talking Chinese to me; I guess you must be talking abot a computer game perhaps ?. but that's given me another question to ask, but it would be off topic here.........

It is a game yes. Interestingly some of the most advanced AI is being developed specifically for games precisely because a rendition of emotion adds another level of depth and immersion into the gaming environment. Another good example of how scary AI is getting is the wonderful game Nintendogs for the nintendo DS. True it's only dog AI but damn it's convincing.

 

[Mike182]

Of course people have souls. It's where we get things like feelings, creativity, personality, etc. Music, drama, laughter, compassion, happiness and sadness, all of these things comes from our souls. Our bodies are biological machines. The only difference between our body and a robot's body is the material we're made out of. But what seperates us from robots are the things I mentioned above. Robots don't cry at funerals. Robots don't create music unless they are programmed to do so. Robots don't feel compassion when they see little childeren starving on T.V. They just go thorugh the motions until their battery runs out.

i read somewhere that the brain releases a natural ammount of LSD, causing creativity and feeling - many writters complain after they have spent a long time writting creatively, that they see things flying over their head - i shall try and find a site for this

 

[Fade]

i read somewhere that the brain releases a natural ammount of LSD, causing creativity and feeling - many writters complain after they have spent a long time writting creatively, that they see things flying over their head - i shall try and find a site for this

I find this hard to believe too. I thought LSD was a completely synthetic chemical compound...i.e. doesn't occur naturally. Could you be refering to dopamine or Seratonin?

 

[YmirGF]

I find this hard to believe too. I thought LSD was a completely synthetic chemical compound...i.e. doesn't occur naturally. Could you be refering to dopamine or Seratonin?

He can only be referring to dopamine, I would expect.
As a budding "writer", I don't know that I would complain about the ideas floating around in my head. Certainly, the whirlpool can get rather intense, so that I am not paying 100% attention to physical reality.

For example I was making a lovely turkey omelet for dinner not too long ago, had all the turkey, celery, onions and spices simmering in a pan. I was also working on an idea while I puttered about the kitcken. Toast popped up... and then it dawned on me that I had completely forgotten to get out some eggs. I felt a bit foolish, yes indeed. Mind you, I could just be getting old. Hehe. Hmm, now what was I saying....

 

[ChrisP]

Something about Unicorns. . . .

Get the point ?

 

[Mister_T]

What makes you think that we aren't programmed like robots and just running processes that we have been preprogrammed to?

Even if that were so, robots need an intelligent programer. Robots don't assemble themselves and robot don't program themselves.

 

[Fade]

Even if that were so, robots need an intelligent programer. Robots don't assemble themselves and robot don't program themselves.

Neither do we

 

[BucephalusBB]

Even if that were so, robots need an intelligent programer. Robots don't assemble themselves and robot don't program themselves.

That's only a circle as the programmer must be made as well, and his programmer and his maker and his God and his...

 

[Mister_T]

That's only a circle as the programmer must be made as well, and his programmer and his maker and his God and his...

The way I understand it's like this. Infinity=no beginning and no end. God is an infinite being. He has always been around and will always be around. Nobody made him. We can't comprehend this concept because everything in our lives has a beginning and an end. He made the universe (big bang) which created us. Think about it. If you heard a loud bang, that noise was the effect of a cause. Bangs don't happen from nothing. If you leave a pen and paper by themselves they will not write a letter. If you leave parts of a watch by themselves they will not form a watch.

 

[Fade]

The way I understand it's like this. Infinity=no beginning and no end. God is an infinite being. He has always been around and will always be around. Nobody made him. We can't comprehend this concept because everything in our lives has a beginning and an end. He made the universe (big bang) which created us. Think about it. If you heard a loud bang, that noise was the effect of a cause. Bangs don't happen from nothing. If you leave a pen and paper by themselves they will not write a letter. If you leave parts of a watch by themselves they will not form a watch.

^^^ Perfect example of someone demonstrating their lack of understanding of big bang theory.

 

[Mister_T]

^^^ Perfect example of someone demonstrating their lack of understanding of big bang theory.

Watered Down Big Bang Theory: All matter in the universe at one point was compacted into a tiny dot with nothingness around it. One day this dot explodes and our universe is created. Great. Not out of the realm of possibility. My point was that you can't something from nothing and matter can't arrange itself. That dot of matter did not come from nothing.

 

[Mister_T]

^^^ Perfect example of someone demonstrating their lack of understanding of big bang theory.

Perfect example of someone demonstrating their lack of proper rebuttal skills.

 

[Fade]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang_theory

For anybody who cares to have a little more realistic description of big bang theory.

 

[Fade]

My point was that you can't something from nothing and matter can't arrange itself. That dot of matter did not come from nothing.

What are you basing these claims on?

 

[Mister_T]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang_theory

For anybody who cares to have a little more realistic description of big bang theory.

That's great. But that still doesn't explain how you get something from nothing.