[FRIAM] Can a robot have a soul?

[Marcus Daniels]

I am conflating decentralized with distributed a bit, but they are related in that more imperfect compute elements have more possibility for just adding noise than fewer ones, if what is needed or sought is in fact simple.   In other systems (e.g. a RAID array) redundancy is useful up to a point.  Extensive delegation tends to lead to a lack of coherence / the too-many-cooks problem.   Compression may give organisms higher fitness.   (Musk’s slogan that the best component is the one you don’t need.)

Now with the internet, genetic engineering, high fidelity simulations (e.g. as used by Tesla) and additive manufacturing, Searle’s categories are looking pretty strained.   Soon nanofabrication will be routine.  If you can make the model, you can have the thing..

On Sep 18, 2021, at 10:01 PM, Stephen Guerin <stephen.guerin at simtable.com> wrote:




On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 9:53 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com<mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
There seems to be individual differences in how people have responded to the longer stretches of the pandemic.   Some people lost benefits from the “open” system.  They lost access to their friends or lost their cadence.  Other people didn’t really notice so much or even liked having the convenience of not having to run around so much.  If the Chinese did lock up Searle in a room, he would have no one to play footsie with, and maybe he would become depressed that he had no one to “charm”.   But others might not even bother to shake the door handle, and just enjoy the peace and quiet with their conniving managers at arm’s length<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/work-from-home-benefits/619597/>.

I see what your point about a room for "social" isolation.

My thought experiment was using closed in the physics sense. ie, exchange of energy but no exchange of matter with the surroundings. In a closed physical system, Searle and remote workers are dead but the robot "lives".

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