Re: Self without body

From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 01 2007 - 20:19:41 MST


On 3/2/07, Mohsen Ravanbakhsh <ravanbakhsh@gmail.com> wrote:

> We're talking about (supper)human software programs.
> They certainly need a self.(Do they?)
> For us the source of this self seems to have its root in having a body. At
> least this is a (semi?)biological claim, according to which the primitive
> parts of the spectrum of self emerges from the feeling of unity behind a
> body.
> Would a software have this self? (It's a software it can not have a
> body...)
> And as a more fundamental question: what is our philosophical direction
> about the mind-body problem? and for what kinds of assumptions still we can
> see a future for construction of (supper)humans.
>

You could consider the computer as a brain with sensory information,
including that which tells you have a body (because how else do you know
this?) as input data. It is easy to fool the computer so it has no way of
knowing whether the data is coming from actual microphones, cameras and so
on, or if it is generated in a virtual environment. Thus you could program a
computer, in theory, to believe that it has a body. Alternatively, you could
just create a new type of entity that does not have the need to think it has
a body.

Stathis Papaioannou



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