Would It Have A Soul?

I was watching an episode of Through The Wormhole and an interesting question was raised.

Eventually, we will have the technology and computing power to synthesize, actually create a fully-functional Human brain.

Every connection, every spark, perfectly duplicated.

From the tissue, the cells, blood flow, etc.

When that day comes, will that mind have a Soul?

Perhaps a "fully-functioning human brain" requires a soul to be "fully-functioning."

reply to post by Signals

Define "soul".....

I think a better question would be, will it be self-aware.

Judging from all the movie scripts, that's when things go south..

Peace

reply to post by Signals


I think that’s a very interesting question. In some theories of reincarnation, it’s suggested that before our next life begins, we actually choose what family we want to be born into and that often we don’t actually enter into our ‘infant’ body until right before we’re born.

With that in mind, if it’s true that we in fact choose to enter a human body than I guess...it’s possible that a soul could chose a metallic body or cloned body just for the sake of that experience.

I guess, it hard to know 100% for sure. I suspect most people will scoff and say meh, it something that's been manufactured...and that’s probably true...but it’s hard to know for sure..

Perhaps when we create a robot/clone that is that sophisticated we could always ask it?

reply to post by OwenandNoelle

I think that’s a very interesting question. In some theories of reincarnation, it’s suggested that before our next life begins, we actually choose what family we want to be born into and that often we don’t actually enter into our ‘infant’ body until right before we’re born.

yeah right..... would anybody choose to be born into a family that will be abusive, poor, live in an underprivileged country, where they look ugly, or any such sort ?

There are any number of atheists that will say no it will not have a soul. I think this is an opportunity I can't pass up to agree with them.

Well the same type of philosophical question could also be raised for any A.I.
Can a computer become self aware and what is the definition of consciousness?
........or a soul for that matter.

Originally posted by bestintentions
reply to post by OwenandNoelle

 

I think that’s a very interesting question. In some theories of reincarnation, it’s suggested that before our next life begins, we actually choose what family we want to be born into and that often we don’t actually enter into our ‘infant’ body until right before we’re born.

yeah right..... would anybody choose to be born into a family that will be abusive, poor, live in an underprivileged country, where they look ugly, or any such sort ?

edit on 16-6-2011 by bestintentions because: (no reason given)

Maybe they choose that sort of life, because valuable lessons can be learnt when you're experiencing things from a different point of view.

Maybe that's how people develop compassion and empathy? After all, you never really know how someone else feels until you've walked a mile in their shoes. It's just a theory, but maybe a "soul" might realise they need to learn to be less judgemental in their next life, so they choose to be born into the life of someone who constantly suffers other people's judgements.

Again, just a theory...but to me it makes sense.

if it is selfaware .. then i think yes

Put simply, No.

Soul, or your ehteric unique eternal YOU (we're all assuming), is something that is attributed from, far as we can prove/know, or to a body or vessel upon it's exact exiting or leaving of womb. The vessel comes from organs of a a female human being, as Nature created. In this natural (most IMPORTANT part of process; is that this is the Way of nature) process, nature creates and dictates to which vessel, which soul. This is the way. It put us here and we do what we do at its accepting or denying to what extents we can BE and we will continue, naturally reproducing and existing with nature and as it intended while being our master.


Then those vessels (you, me, Nature given Souls) create, through naturally provided physical material, vessels (robots and such) and through whatever means input or teach a Soul onto or into said created vessel; the vessel, IN MY OPINOIN, would/could be 99.99% what we perceive a soul to be or think it to act or its thought patterns/emotions or just "exist" but it would not have an ehteric soul - as Nature didn't create nor authorize this constructed vessel that had "being"-ness programmed into it. So not created by nature, NO soul.

So I think No. Not unless nature would, by itself, somehow allow or take in or accepted to be what is natural. As in it identified that it is there thinking, feeling, "living", or BEING and then from there decided/initiated/enforced a soul onto/into these sub-created maniupulations of pysical material/stuff/resources made possible by softwares programmed by Nature made vessels (you, me, Joe down the way).... THEN it'd have a soul; otherwise, as Man cannot judge Man, nor can it Create or Destroy Man.

In my opinion and due to unspeakable external variables and conditions/circumstances that arised during my reply to your thread or inquiry, was really difficult to put into words. I usually don't exhaust myself so much... hope my opinion inspired thought or reflection...or Not.

Hm, really good question. So I would go along the lines of, is the soul in the brain? Can it be duplicated? If we believe our soul exists in our brain functions, then it may. If it is a seperate entity entirely, then no. But its really complicated. We have to go into everything about emotions, right and wrong, personality. I dont know.

reply to post by Signals


Suppose it depends on how you define the word soul. If you mean in the religious sense, like some kind of ghostly version of yourself living within you, I don't think anyone has one of those. If you mean the poetic sort of soul, like deep thoughts and deep emotions, I suppose its possible to create that in a machine though I doubt we will be able to for some time. The issue is in determining the difference between a mind simulator and a mind. For instance the online AI Cleverbot can approximate a fairly realistic (albeit often random) conversation but it has no comprehension, no actual mind. So the question arises of how to tell the difference between an actual mind and an accurate mind facsimile - if there even is a distinction.

Will it dream of dancing? Write poetry? Make jokes? Will it smile? Will it be afraid of dying? The real question to me seems to be will it be human? Or human enough to have the same rights and responsibilities other beings, type: human, have. To me the soul is the belief that a piece of us goes on beyond physical life, continues in perpetuity without a material body. It's a question we can't satisfactorily answer for ourselves let alone other beings.

I say it will have a soul.

Everything has a soul, even that which is inanimate.

This comes from a belief that all is one and is one soul. Everything comes from and is a part of God.

Originally posted by Signals
When that day comes, will that mind have a Soul?

No only the creator distributes souls. Not universal inhabitants. It would be intelligent, but I dont think a soul would be present. But then again whos to say an intelligent species wouldnt embedd within them.

S&F

The creation of a soul is spontaneous, basically, as soon as a connection is made, it would take a small "spark" for it to have a consciousness, and even at that stage, its awareness would be very limited.

Generally, the energy and life that flows through the universe, exists because of spontaneous creation, all things that are created artificially, might be a proxy for what is real, however, they would lack the essential "spark of life" that separates a living soul occupying a body, from a biological machine designed to replicate thoughts and emotions.

If I can explain it, awareness is universal, and it takes a certain "question" for something that is aware to generate a soul, it is, essentially, an "original thought" that establishes an aware entity into a self-contained "ensouled" entity.

Sometimes, we might create a child, and that child will be interlocked with our consciousness, and if they were ever to "fall" they would be apart of our collective memory, and would thus "reincarnate" until they develop to a level of self-questioning that creates the simultaneous "spark" of true self-immortality.

After that stage, multiple "selves" can exist within the same soul, and that soul itself can divide itself into separate entities.

In the end, there was a "prime creator" or "origin point" and even if we were all to "fall" we would be a part of its memory, and, depending upon its creation, we would be reborn into new existences.

reply to post by Signals


a soul in my opininon from what ive learned from old science (Druidism) and Phisics/Quantum physics is that your soul is simply your mind witch is unattached to you brain because your mind is stored in you bio-electric energy witch in sucession is your aura witch holds your mind/soul/Psyci. so unless humans evolve to see bio-energy we can not be certian.

KEEP IN MIND im taking my believes and opinions into this also so.

reply to post by Signals


News flash!!!

The Greeks invented the soul, so no, it won't. But that's okay, because you don't have one either.

Plato and his pals were just trying to get a handle on the whole "external observer" conundrum, and next thing you know, the Mystery Religions launched the notion across the entire Mediterranean region, where the Hebrew merchants (trying desperately to hang out with all the potential business people who had their own versions of this new theological fad) recruited the closest thing they had to a "lesser god" (their Messiah) and launched what became Christianity - thereby cementing the concept of the Soul forever within the cultures that radiated out from that pivotal period of intense cultural concentration and exchange.

Sure, this is an extremely stripped down overview, but the fact is that the Soul didn't exist until the Greeks made it popular some handful of centuries before the Romans grabbed it from the Hebrews after they obliterated Israel and reconfigured it into a new and unifying state religion. In fact, the only reason you even know the term is because of the Vatican and its centuries of cultural influence from one end of the planet to the other. So blame the Romans - or give them credit - for the Soul. They stole it from the Greeks by way of the Hebrews who were just trying to find a way to do business with everyone who was getting their cues from the Greeks in that region.

Authentic history is pretty mundane when you really dig into it. Many mysteries end up not being so mysterious

reply to post by NorEaster


WOAH WOAH WOAH slow down...The soul was created by ancient religons not historic ones, The druids, Pagans, and Forest Dwellers (also known as children of the forest (wiccans and such) in artheran lore) created an afterlife where your mind left your body and traveled....is this not a soul?

Originally posted by Solsthime331
reply to post by NorEaster

 

WOAH WOAH WOAH slow down...The soul was created by ancient religons not historic ones, The druids, Pagans, and Forest Dwellers (also known as children of the forest (wiccans and such) in artheran lore) created an afterlife where your mind left your body and traveled....is this not a soul?

The human spirit is not the soul. Look it up. The soul exists (according to tradition) as served by, but devoid of, conscious human personality. The spirit, on the other hand, is the conscious personage of the corporeal human being. These are two very different things, and the ancients acknowledged spirits in everything (even bird droppings, it seems). The concept of the soul is that it pre-exists the human conscious personage, and is served (somehow) by the development of that personage before casting it aside and taking on the effort of developing a new and dissimilar conscious personage via the corporeal brain of a new human being.