Artificial Intelligence, Cloning, Dualism and Evolution

I know, a lot to shove into a title.

My quandry:

Humanity is techonologically on the brink of "being god".

From microprocessing to gene splitting, smart AIs to cloned babys, we are creating more and more and becoming more adept at it.

Let us say for the sake of aurgument that body and mind ARE one and that our minds and thoughts are products of brain chemistry.

Once we take the step of creating "people", what are we?

Are they our brothers, or have we evolved into something more?

How do explain about Jesus to a person made of silicon and dreamed up by a man?

How do you explain karma and nirvana to a 3rd generation clone?

What if we choose to not include the feature of "spiritual" thinking into their blueprints?

We are know learning where excatly in the brain ectasy and trance and visions are generating from. If we remove those from clones or we neglect to program it into AIs are they people in the same sence that we are?

 

That God works through all men (actually everything).

 

actualy man is on the brink of no longer being man, not through cloning, but through genetic manipulation. I can see a future not far off were we have altered ourselves to a point were we are almost unrecognizable. I see no turning back and no way out of it, it will start with people improving there offspring, to be smarter, faster, stronger, and the preseding generation, now with even less compultion not to alter due to the fact they have been alter, going even farther. One of the first biggys they will target will be the "criminal element" and so will go art. then in the end we will be mearly curiousity, feeding a machine.

 

It's enough to make you want to kill yourself, thinking about that. Scary as hell. I don't want any part of it, call me old fasioned, call me whatever the fuck you want. We're playing with our own doom with a lot of this (especially nanotechnology).

I don't think it will ever come to such, so I won't be killing myself anytime soon. But the idea of purely logical beings with no sense of the sacred is a horrible image, like "I, Robot" where you not only get a tyrranical dictatorship, but not even human; no suceptibility to emotion, love, god. They'd be unstoppable.

I have very turbid thoughts on the whole thing right now, can't really put them out there in a sensible way, but I've been thinking about it more lately. Something about it is just not right. Besides, doesn't it sound supremely stupid to go making more people when we can't even make ourselves right?

 

and how could their perception of what lies on the other side of the 'brink' we are treading on appear to be so similar to the same one they ignore?

"I have very turbid thoughts on the whole thing right now, can't really put them out there in a sensible way, but I've been thinking about it more lately. Something about it is just not right. Besides, doesn't it sound supremely stupid to go making more people when we can't even make ourselves right?"

Any alterations done on an individual basis to eliminate the chance of us 'creating' our own bastard forms of life or producing 'workhorses' to maintain the labor needed to keep fueling this system
would require the precision strength and accuracy of Japaneese steel
performing in the hands of a Master.



I'm still not the butcher or magician you desire.

 

I really, REALLY, *really* doubt it. We aren't that far. We have a very long way to go. We don't understand almost anything about ourselves, our psyches, our brains, or those of animals, and we know next to nothing about the universe we live in. In addition, society has become so corrupt that even if we, united, COULD become a god, we never will for a very long time.

Simple: We are still people.

The next step in human evolution is to create something that is considered greater than a human.

But regardless, it doesn't matter; we are leaps and bounds away from the technological knowledge to create even a decent single-celled organism, let alone a human.

I think you're overestimating our abilities, by far.

They'd be our "sons and daughters."

Assuming that your idea of what we create as a "person" works, in at least a relative fashion, like a human, then it'd be quite simple to explain Jesus to such a person. If they can't understand what Jesus is (or can't formulate an opinion of their own), then they aren't really a "person" as you describe them to be.

If it's a human clone, you use your mouth to explain them. Or try to show them.

IF such an exclusion is even possible, which I think it's very likely to not be able to separate spiritual thinking from any other kind of thinking ...

We do still have a LOT to learn about the brain. We have scratched the surface barely, but that's about it.

And if we removed some of the things we do know in the brain from a clone or don't program it into an AI, then it won't work like a person will. They won't be people in the same sense that we are, because they literally AREN'T like us. They'd be like a separate species from an artificial and planned evolution.

Oh yeah, Love_N_It, I like the picture in your sig.

 

Imagine crumbing some bread to a small pathetic ant who then crawls over to its nest procclaiming: -Look at me, I have created(notice the word) this great masterpiece -using my mind and strenght- but in reality you have provided the stupid ant the bread in which it by the use of saliva made the extrodinary master piece it so boastfully talks about.

This thread reminds me of some verses in the Quran I was reciting earlier:
Do ye then see?- The (human Seed) that ye throw out,-
Is it ye who create it, or are We the Creators?
We have decreed Death to be your common lot, and We are not to be frustrated from changing your Forms and creating you (again) in (forms) that ye know not(sura 56)

So, do it by tubes, by cloning or by normal intercourse, We (meaning the royal We, ie. God) are still doing it, so do not get deluded!

 

these people who are wanting to do all this cloning b.s. is only causing trouble to themselfs and to this world.

 

For example? such as?

You upset me, I was expecting a "cloning smoning" from you.

 

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. ~ Oscar Wilde

We know a little, but not all. This will lead to disaster.

 

Maybe 'brink" was a poor choice of words.
I'm looking at the big picture.
"Mankind" has only existed for roughly the last 30,000 years or so.
Roaches have been around far longer...
And yet look at the advance.
Look at the tech advances from:

0 - 1000 A.D.

1000 - 1500 A.D.

1500 - 1800 A.D.

1800 - 1950 A.D.

1950 - 2000 A.D.

I give it another 60 years until the human genome is completely mapped, true A.I. (or a good imitation) exists, and I can instantly access CNN through inplants in my skull.

How long until we're able to order our children blond haired, blue eyed, and with the "god seeking" part of their brains repressed or shut off completely?

As far as simply telling our future offspring about religion, thats not waht i'm talking about...

When we've finished rewiring and recreating humanity will they look back upon our grasping towards the heavens with pity in their eyes, or fear, or envy, or (hopefully) understanding and forgiveness?

Some say humanity will take a long time (if ever) to mature to that point.

We'll see.

 

edge.org has a couple essays by people (I think Jaron Lanier wrote one?) about the technological singularity. Interesting stuff, whether or not their predictions are true.

I'm optimistic, only because I am realistic and not into fantasy armageddon scenarios, although going through a 'real world' armeggedon might be fun (never done it, so I can't comment on it).

Gotta go, powers flickering- thunderstorm in central Pa.