Anastasios, I think that is a great comparison. It does not make too much sense to discuss a matter of belief, it is much more scientific to discuss something that we can try, test and reproduce.
I think the notion of spirituality in the western world is less mature than in eastern philosophies. For instance, I think "yoga" means something like "Royal science for cosmic union", very similar to "religion" which comes from the Latin "re-ligare" or to "unite again". In this sense, one can experiment and live an spiritual life. I think most of the spiritual schools consider the spirit as the life force that permeates everything. Hence spirituality means to feel that spirit, to find our bonds with everything and everybody that surround us, and to act according to that feeling. We could feel that we are bond to our relatives or friends, but I assume that spiritual masters can integrate much more people in their circle. To try that attitude, expanding or compressing our area of other's awareness, is an experiment that we can reproduce everyday. Deepak Chopra says that we are like TV tuning the waves of cosmic consciousness. In some sense, I see AGI is spiritual as it believes that the same awareness, life force, and intelligence that is in humans can be tuned also by any machine with the right "antenna" (or algorithm). Sergio On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 8:32 PM, Anastasios Tsiolakidis < [email protected]> wrote: > "God" is as interesting as any other concept, ie totally a game people > play, linguistic or not. A gene for this probably does not exist, just like > a gene for short skirts and high heels doesn't exist. What does exist is > some people who can, will, can't or won't have a spiritual life, just like > they will or won't have a sex life, a political life etc. For whatever > reason most people will not reach levels worth talking about in any of > these lives. But the list is a great place to discuss the mediocre and > bellow :) > > AT > > I Am > > On 16.11.2012, at 19:31, Steve Richfield <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Everyone, > > There is an important point that everyone here is missing: > > Believers actually do better in our world than do non-believers. Why? > Because others know that believers think God is watching them, so others > expect believers to be more trust-worthy than non-believers are. Hence, > with greater trust, believers are trusted with more, they build bigger > fortunes, have more wives, and sire more believers. > > Looking around, most people can see that believers usually have more than > do non-believers. Why? "Obviously" (if you believe the hype) because God > has rewarded them for their belief!!! > > My longtime friend Dan, a Baptist minister with a DD degree, related his > impressions when he first met my family, where no one had even the > slightest hint of religious leanings. Dan had "learned" that you can't > trust non-believers, yet we literally saved his life from a downward > spiral, with no expectation of any sort of direct reward. This turned into > hours of discussion about the cold hard logic of some forms of altruism, > e.g. seeing how little it takes to turn someone else's life around, to > potentially be used in the future to turn our own lives around. In short, > the value of what we learned exceeded the cost of saving Dan. > > There is a COST in non-belief that isn't exacted by God, but rather it is > exacted by society in the form of a sort of social tax that keeps away many > valuable contacts. Sure, you might think that a devout believer is a little > nuts, but that is better than their belief that you, a non-believer, are > untrustworthy and will steal anything you can get away with. > > Hence, reject the meme of God at your peril. There is a good reason why > everyone on this forum is too broke to fully fund their interests - because > your "God", AGI, isn't their God. > > Steve > ============== > On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 8:51 AM, Piaget Modeler <[email protected] > > wrote: > >> >> Whether their host is biological or synthetic, I think memes will always >> find a way to reproduce. >> >> ~PM >> >> ------------------------------ >> Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:20:52 -0600 >> Subject: Re: [agi] Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Neuroscience of >> Religious belief >> From: [email protected] >> To: [email protected] >> >> >> It would be interesting, though, PM, to see if the AGIs humanity >> eventually produces are sufficiently similar to us to be susceptible to the >> same parasitic exploitation. >> >> >> >> *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/10443978-6f4c28ac> | >> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com> >> > > > > -- > Full employment can be had with the stoke of a pen. Simply institute a six > hour workday. That will easily create enough new jobs to bring back full > employment. > > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/14050631-7d925eb1> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/15717384-a248fe41> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
