At 08:29 AM 7/19/01, you wrote:
>In a message dated 7/18/01 12:38:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
><< >As for our disposable toys, we have there an
> >example of something designed to push well-known human emotional
> >buttons--but you don't seriously think they feel, do you?
>
> It's a Turing Test situation, IMHO. Until you can define what emotions are
> and prove that you have them and that a Tamagotchi doesn't, I'm not sure I
> want to make that call.
>
> This is reminiscent of the "zombie" problem of consciousness. Is it
> sensical
> to talk about something with all of the higher mental capabilities of a
> human, capable of passing for a human and interacting with humans, but
> missing some very specific part X?
> >>
If you want to address the question more generally:
In the rerun that aired last night, did the Buffy robot "love" Spike, or
was it just programmed as a sex toy?
-- Ronn! :)
