From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sat Jun 29 2002 - 22:41:48 MDT
> > And so is the seeking, grasping nature of the whole AGI pursuit. Zen
> > is about being contented with what is, not about constantly striving
> > to create a whole new order. It teaches compassion, but simple
> > compassion in each moment, not compassion via building thinking
> > machines to change the world. If the Zen Buddhist in me were
> > dominant, I wouldn't be working on AGI, I'd be sitting and
> > meditating, walking thru the woods, and helping the needy directly.
>
> Why would you change your nature so? Can you not be content with what
> you are?
It would seem not. I flunked out of Zen and took up transhumanism instead
;)
[A joke -- of course the two are not contradictory]
> > This asks a lot more. Atheism is not anthropomorphic or
> > human-culture-bound so an AI can naturally be expected to happen upon
> > it as a possible attitude. Catholicism is highly anthropomorphic, so
> > it would take a lot of work to make a nonhuman system have spiritual
> > experiences consistent with the "father son and holy ghost" meme,
> > etc.
>
> You are making this statement from the viewpoint that Catholicism is
> wrong and that an impartial mind would have to be *forced* into
> agreement with it.
>
> A Catholic would have a very different perspective on what was needed
> for an objective observer to come to the correct conclusion that
> Catholicism is the true religion.
Perhaps so. I don't know any religious Catholics who would be willing to
enter into this sort of discussion.
If you do, and have the discussion, please let me know the results!
> If our universe had been created by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if
> the Trinity were bound up in the foundations of order for all reality
> and our own world simply a reflection of it, then Novamente would
> indeed, as it grew and came to reflect more and more of the universe and
> to learn more and more of its creators, find these concepts quite
> 'natural'. For Novamente too exists in the world that is sustained by
> the bounty of the Lord. Do not suppose in your hubris that Novamente
> exists independently of God because you have 'created' it, for the very
> materials of which you fashioned it exist by the will of the Creator and
> would cease in an instant if ever He should withdraw His will. Amen.
And if Novamente *failed* to see the truth of the {Father, Son, Holy Spirit}
story, what would this prove, to our hypothetical Catholic
A) that the story is wrong?
B) that Novamente is demon-spawn???
-- Ben G
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