It's an interesting question.If you were to replace a single neuron in your brain with an electronic device that performs exactly the same function, would you become a robot?
What if you replaced two neurons? Or ten? Or half of them?
(What if you replaced two neurons? Or ten? Or half of them?
Walrus Man Think hippy thoughts,
Thu 21 Aug 2008, 16:15,
archived)
We're not necessarily talking electronic devices here...But if you were grown in a vat and had an artificial personality implanted, however sophisticate, shirley you'd be just as much of a robot as somthing with an equivalent personality that was welded together out of scrap iron?
(
barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!,
Thu 21 Aug 2008, 16:19,
archived)
True.But how would you implant an artificial personality in a human brain? Either you use electronic components, or you re-wire the brain in the same way that you might reprogram a computer.
Brains and computers are essentially both input-output machines. They both use logic and reasoning, they both have the ability to form memories and adapt their future actions based on what they have learned, and the only real differences between them are to do with what they are made out of.
The concept of a personality is simply the culmination of the experiences a person has been exposed to during their lifetime. This is similar to how the way a computer works is based on what it has been programmed to do. So if you act in a certain way toward another human being, and they begin to think and act differently as a result, aren't you essentially reprogramming them?
And now I've exhausted pretty much everything I learned in AS philosophy :D
(Brains and computers are essentially both input-output machines. They both use logic and reasoning, they both have the ability to form memories and adapt their future actions based on what they have learned, and the only real differences between them are to do with what they are made out of.
The concept of a personality is simply the culmination of the experiences a person has been exposed to during their lifetime. This is similar to how the way a computer works is based on what it has been programmed to do. So if you act in a certain way toward another human being, and they begin to think and act differently as a result, aren't you essentially reprogramming them?
And now I've exhausted pretty much everything I learned in AS philosophy :D
Walrus Man Think hippy thoughts,
Thu 21 Aug 2008, 16:30,
archived)
Hmmm... Deep...I guess the differential would be that the human would have had self-determination and free will since birth, allowing it to form its own stimulus-response pathways as it goes along, whereas the robot, of whatever type, would have a predetermined set of experiences built in to enable and predispose it to fulfil a desired function. From there on in it may be able to evolve and develop as an 'individual', but perhaps it is the initial pre-programming that would be the defining feature as to whether it is a lifeform in its own right, or a robot.
Didn't even do AS philosophy ;)
I think on that note, home tiem!
(Didn't even do AS philosophy ;)
I think on that note, home tiem!
barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!,
Thu 21 Aug 2008, 16:39,
archived)
*Strokes beard*This is a good pub discussion.
( Walrus Man Think hippy thoughts,
Thu 21 Aug 2008, 16:42,
archived)