On Monday, June 29, 2020, at 9:13 AM, Matt Mahoney wrote: > Surely anyone who believes that AGI is possible wouldn't also believe in souls or heaven or ghosts??? Your brain is a computer, right?
Belief in souls and whatnot is fully compatible with the belief that AGI is possible, if one avoids making some unfounded assumptions. If humans have souls and humans are intelligent, it does not follow that only things with souls can be intelligent. On the other hand, if humans have souls, it does not follow that silicon-based digital computers cannot have souls. If human behavior is computable, it does not follow that everything about human existence is computable. On the other hand, there's no particular guarantee that souls aren't computable. Beyond the fact that it's an essence of the self and is reputed to survive the destruction of the body ... as far as I know, there's relatively little clarity about what a "soul" is. A program can survive the destruction of its computer, if there's a backup. What if "souls" are just information? What if going to heaven is just being restored from backup in an otherworldly location? That's not shockingly different from the notion of uploading one's brain into a computer, really. There's no need to police the extraneous beliefs of people who are working on AGI. ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T07361bd0216a4e97-M79cae778ecfe8c70b6e37be4 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
