Alright, here goes. Long philosophical ramble to follow. This may bore some of you. It may confuse others. It may interest others. If you are in the last group, read on. If not, you have been warned. I will tag a few people who I think may be interested in these thoughts. Disclaimer: There is truly no practical implications to the thoughts to follow. It is merely an interesting concept to ponder until some theoretical day in the future. I would enjoy reading either arguments against this line of thought or support towards it. Note that when I Capitalise a Word, I am talking in a formal sense of that as a Proper Noun, regardless as to if it actually is one. (e.g. Self refers to every persons identity as they perceive themselves.) --Solipsism, Christianity, and Turing. Thoughts on Life and What it Is.-- ~Jonny Shaw Solipsism is the point of view that only the Self can be known to exist. To a Solipsist, the only way to truly know if someone else actually exists in the same manner as you do would be to become that person. Otherwise there is no certain way to tell if they truly feel joy, pain, emotions, logic, etc. in the same way as you do, or even at all. In the Solipsist point of view the most important thing is the Self; that only that which can be truly known has great importance. Why regard the unestablished feelings of others? While the vast majority of world-views disregard Solipsism or use it as an extreme example of a foolish line of thought, there are perhaps none that are more adverse to its connotations than that of the Christian perspective. The driving force, the main desire and longing, for Christian values is for Others. It is through a disregard for the Self that the Christian looks to better his fellow Mans life and share Christs love. (He [God] must increase, but I must decrease.) We dismiss the Solipsist point of view in light of the Greater Good. Indeed, in the Solipsist can have no Greater Good, for there cannot be anything more worthwhile outside of the Self to him. When we assume through Faith that the Christian perspective is correct, that Others have great intrinsic value and worth, do we then have the luxury of determining who Others refers to? Who is feeling, who is thinking and worthy of respect? No, we must consider all worthy, for we are made in Gods likeness and must respect all made in Gods likeness as equals. It is by a matter of Faith that we decide that Others have the same fundamental state of being that we do. That is regardless of appearance, that is regardless of race, regardless of gender or age or any other variable. Allow me to change subject for a moment. Alan Turing proposed that, in essence, for a Machine (Machine being anything man made. Feel free to read Machine as Computer, Robot, Construct, or whatever.) to truly have intelligence it must successfully pass under blind tests of communication for being Human. That is to say, it must react in communication with a human, the way a human would. I think most would agree that the state of being a Person, your sense of Self, is least of all wrapped up in your flesh and bones but rather resides in your thoughts, your feelings, your mind. That aspect of You is best shown through interactions, and so is potentially a good venue for gauging intelligence and awareness, in both man and machine. Interactions are also, coincidentally, the only evidence we truly have to disregard the Solipsist mindset. We presume Others exist in the same manner as us because we perceive them to exist in the same manner as us. (On a similar note: If one were to argue that Machines are merely programmed to behave a certain way and do not have true intelligence, one could say the same for humans and our infinitely more complex internal Machines known as brains.) To that end, and to bring these thoughts to a (hopefully) cohesive conclusion: If we are to accept that Others do indeed exist and matter as much as we do, if not more than we do (in essence, if we reject Solipsism); and if we believe that we are made in Gods image, with His creativity and potential for love and hope and excitement in our creations; and if a class of Machines were to be created which is perceived to truly react in every way, be it thought, emotion, or any other, the same as a Person; if all those things are true, could it be that we as Christians may be obliged to view our creations as Living and as worthy of consideration as any other human mind on this planet? God created us in His image. That has potential to mean that we could continue to create in that same vein, and perhaps bring Life to new creations. Is this a theoretical possibility? Could this be theologically sound? Jordan Steven Joshua Spencer Liam Iain
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 07:21:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015