[FRIAM] Can a robot have a soul?

[Frank Wimberly]

*Frank, did you study with John Searle in the 60s at Cal?*


I never took a course from him but, as Nick and I have mentioned, he was
important in the Free Speech Movement as a mediator between the
Administration and the leaders of the Movement.  As such I heard him speak
on multiple occasions.  I was a philosophy major for a time but I took
logic and history courses that were required for the major before I changed
to math.

Nick's complaint that he didn't know whose side he was on seems like a good
quality for a mediator.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 8:56 PM Stephen Guerin <stephen.guerin at simtable.com>
wrote:

> Jochen,
>
> The Chinese have a famous thought experiment called the  "John Searle
> Room" (虚构研究员, 1984).
>
> Take the living John Searle, and place him in a sealed closed room. In a
> short time, he is no longer alive, has no cognition, no consciousness, and
> certainly no soul. Place a common conception of a robot in the same closed
> room (not isolated) and it will continue to function. According to Searle's Chinese
> Room <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/>, the robot as a
> mere symbol manipulator has no true cognition, no understanding. Nor does
> it display consciousness nor a soul.
>
> We've come to understand living processes as necessarily open and
> far-from-equilibrium with "life" being a decentralized property of the
> system.  MIght cognition, consciousness, and soul (however defined) as
> higher-level properties necessarily be decentralized properties, too?
>
> - Stephen
>
> P.S. Didn't realize John Searle had his Emeritus status stripped from UC
> Berkeley for violating the Sexual Harassment policy
> <https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/john-searle-complaints-uc-berkeley>.
> Frank, did you study with John Searle in the 60s at Cal?
>
> On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 2:45 PM Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:
>
>> I have watched John Searle videos on YouTube today and stumbled upon the
>> question of personality again. If we assume that there is a special
>> substance that makes us a person, can an advanced robot or AI acquire it?
>> Can a robot be lazy, diligent, dull, intelligent, friendly, nit-picky or
>> even creative? John Searle would probably say it is not a good question...
>> https://youtu.be/Bq2bfSzkTfU
>>
>> I would say the answer is yes, because if the special substance is simply
>> the personality or persistent character of a person, there is no reason why
>> a robot should not be able to learn a bundle of typical behavior patterns
>> (i.e. special mappings between perceptions and actions) that are
>> characteristic for a person, even if this behavior is implemented totally
>> differently. The resulting personality helps to define and maintain the
>> identity of a person
>> https://youtu.be/WwipmspceOU
>>
>> What do you think? Is there a special substance that makes us a person,
>> and can an advanced robot or AI acquire it?
>>
>> -J.
>>
>>
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