Originally published at Lolita-Noir Female Superiority Site. You can comment here or there.
I have been seriously neglecting my journal haha. I have just been relaxing and hanging out with my friends. Kind of nice to take a break from the Internet for a while, but I feel really productive today for some reason.
I am releasing a few things this week so keep an eye out.
I’m going to start releasing things more consistently from here on out, if boredom doesn’t get the better of me haha.
The other day I had an interesting discussion with my boyfriend. The question was: If you were to have your brain replaced by an identical machine brain (if that were possible), would it still be “you”?
If you assume that the machine works exactly the same as your brain, I don’t think you would be able to tell the difference. Your brain is just another organ, albeit an extremely complicated one. The machine would make the same decisions, feel the same emotions, and think the same thoughts as the “real you” would.
The only argument I can see for the counter opinion is that the machine wouldn’t have our “soul” in it. I think humans are naturally inclined to believe that there is something beyond our physical self when we think and feel, like a higher consciousness that has been placed there by a divine entity. Haha, that reminds me of a satirical video about creationism that asks the question, “Which explanation makes you feel warm and loved and protected, and which one just sounds like science class?” Don’t we grow out of these ideas when we hit about 10-years-old?
This just makes me wonder… would humankind ever be willing to consider a complex human-like robot sentient? If we could build artificial intelligence so intricate that it could feel emotions and form deep social bonds with other beings, why should we consider it any less conscious than other creatures? By biological standards, it would not be considered a living thing… So, what exactly makes something sentient? Hmmm, opinions?