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27 Aug 2008, 1:53 pm

Maybe someday that will be possible. I'm a big SF fan, so I do think about this kind of thing a lot. Will we ever have sentient androids like Lt. Cmmdr. Data?

greenblue
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27 Aug 2008, 1:54 pm

slowmutant wrote:

Maybe someday that will be possible. I'm a big SF fan, so I do think about this kind of thing a lot. Will we ever have sentient androids like Lt. Cmmdr. Data?

Not sure, perhaps, if so, will they have souls?

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27 Aug 2008, 2:00 pm

greenblue wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Maybe someday that will be possible. I'm a big SF fan, so I do think about this kind of thing a lot. Will we ever have sentient androids like Lt. Cmmdr. Data?

Not sure, perhaps, if so, will they have souls?

Depends on how we choose to define "soul" in that context. Very interesting.

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27 Aug 2008, 2:03 pm

slowmutant wrote:

Maybe someday that will be possible. I'm a big SF fan, so I do think about this kind of thing a lot. Will we ever have sentient androids like Lt. Cmmdr. Data?

Probably not.

Although very good imitations

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27 Aug 2008, 2:10 pm

But sentient machines are a kind of holy grail for today's scientists. True sentiehnt would have to entail self-awareness, the machine's understanding of itself as a machine built by man. Now that would be something. Can you imagine the real-world implications of a truly sentient machine?

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27 Aug 2008, 2:16 pm

slowmutant wrote:

But sentient machines are a kind of holy grail for today's scientists. True sentiehnt would have to entail self-awareness, the machine's understanding of itself as a machine built by man.

Yes that's what we call strong AI.

I don't believe it's possible but a 'machine civilization' is certainly possible and would probably function better than our own

slowmutant wrote:

Now that would be something. Can you imagine the real-world implications of a truly sentient machine?

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27 Aug 2008, 2:18 pm

I don't understand what the above illustration is supposed to mean. :oops:

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27 Aug 2008, 2:24 pm

slowmutant wrote:

Well, I don't know exactly what would be the religious position on this, I think they would not accept that such sentient beings could be created by man, after all, they would be refered as life forms, eventually creating a civil rights movement for them and stuff like that, it would suggest that humankind is somehow playing God in creating non-organic life forms.

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27 Aug 2008, 2:28 pm

Human beings play God all the time, don't we? We just can't help ourselves ... :wink:

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27 Aug 2008, 2:39 pm

slowmutant wrote:

I don't understand what the above illustration is supposed to mean. :oops:

The painting is Åsgårdsreien, The Wild Hunt of Asgard

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27 Aug 2008, 2:45 pm

chever wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

I don't understand what the above illustration is supposed to mean. :oops:

The painting is Åsgårdsreien, The Wild Hunt of Asgard

How is it pertinent here?

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27 Aug 2008, 3:03 pm

slowmutant wrote:

chever wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

I don't understand what the above illustration is supposed to mean. :oops:

The painting is Åsgårdsreien, The Wild Hunt of Asgard

How is it pertinent here?

Sentient machines would not bode well for us

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27 Aug 2008, 3:08 pm

chever wrote:

skafather84 wrote:

i think you hold consciousness in too high of regards.

Not really. My view is actually pretty detached, and I would really rather believe that thoughts can be modeled with purely physical components.

what do you have to make you assume otherwise?

also...what's the latest on moore's law? still holding up?

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27 Aug 2008, 3:12 pm

For several takes on the concept of sentient machines in society, I refer the alert reader to Isaac Asimov's robot stories (particularly the collection I, Robot, which shares in common with the movie only the title and the names of a couple of characters), his novel Caves of Steel and its sequel The Naked Sun, Robert Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, David Gerrold's When HARLIE Was One, and of course the story arcs in the reimagined version of the television series Battlestar Galactica (and its upcoming prequel series, Caprica).

I would think that should a computer achieve sentience, it might well learn ethical behavior from the libraries of humanity - we may be bastards in reality, but by and large our fictional heroes are authentically nice people, and how would a sentient computer know the difference at first?

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27 Aug 2008, 3:19 pm

skafather84 wrote:

what do you have to make you assume otherwise?

The lack of protest from my tower when I kicked it

skafather84 wrote:

also...what's the latest on moore's law? still holding up?

Yes, but there's no magical critical mass of processing components that means '*BOOM!* sentience!'

DeaconBlues wrote:

I would think that should a computer achieve sentience, it might well learn ethical behavior from the libraries of humanity - we may be bastards in reality, but by and large our fictional heroes are authentically nice people, and how would a sentient computer know the difference at first?

If anything, a massive AI would adapt a 'social contract' system of ethical behavior

Social contract only applies to equals

You wouldn't feel ashamed of crushing ants, would you?

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27 Aug 2008, 3:31 pm

chever wrote:

skafather84 wrote:

what do you have to make you assume otherwise?

The lack of protest from my tower when I kicked it

kick it harder. it'll protest eventually.

chever wrote:

skafather84 wrote:

also...what's the latest on moore's law? still holding up?

Yes, but there's no magical critical mass of processing components that means '*BOOM!* sentience!'

no, but it means better research.

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