The only thing that separates us from being computers is a wild card and the fact that we have emotions.
Other than that we are no different. 

What i mean by wild card its just a term really for saying we are unpredictable.

And as far as emotions go we are trying our best to program them into machines currently. Google kenji the robot programmed to love you are bound to find stuff on that. 

It depends on what you mean. If "computers" includes very complex neural networks with all kinds of bells and whistles, I tentatively agree.

I agree. I've never thought "life" is anything other than an arrangement of chemicals which happen to behave a certain way. I don't think there's any special ingredient as such.

What we attribute as "emotions" could be "experienced" by a computer, or something similar, for all we know.

(April 21, 2015 at 1:47 pm)robvalue Wrote: I agree. I've never thought "life" is anything other than an arrangement of chemicals which happen to behave a certain way. I don't think there's any special ingredient as such.

Then why compare us to computers and not, say, a fish? I don't think that's the point dyres is trying to make.


That being said. What point are you trying to make dyres?

The door is a jar.

(April 21, 2015 at 1:32 pm)dyresand Wrote: The only thing that separates us from being computers is a wild card and the fact that we have emotions.
Other than that we are no different. 

What i mean by wild card its just a term really for saying we are unpredictable.

And as far as emotions go we are trying our best to program them into machines currently. Google kenji the robot programmed to love you are bound to find stuff on that. 

If you say "our brain is no different from a computer", then you would be slightly, but noticeably, less wrong. 

(April 21, 2015 at 1:32 pm)dyresand Wrote: The only thing that separates us from being computers is a wild card and the fact that we have emotions.
Other than that we are no different. 

What i mean by wild card its just a term really for saying we are unpredictable.

And as far as emotions go we are trying our best to program them into machines currently. Google kenji the robot programmed to love you are bound to find stuff on that. 

I would amend that with the word, 'complexity.' I see no reason to believe that what we call consciousness/spirit/soul is anything more mysterious than a very complex program running on a biological computer. We don't have a good understanding of it yet, but we will.

Yeah, and computers just merged their components into a working unit without any design or brainpower behind the project-
Just like evolution.
Remarkably insightful comparison if you think about it.

Man-made computers are made of materials that don't do that. Carbon atoms do do that. It's not hard to understand.

It is such a popular position to take here for some reason. But I can't see any similarity between a computer and a person. When I was a kid brought to Disneyland for the first time I remember all the wonder expressed about the 'automatronics" which made the robotic birds mimic real ones in movement and sound. To my mind, that is all that any computer does is mimic.

Of course, a computer can make a decision using a logic tree implanted by a programmer or one that evolves along prescribed parameters by the same. The idea of the character Data from Star Trek is fun but bogus. It is much easier to act out scenarios in science fiction than it is to imagine what it would mean for a computer to think.

But the idea of Data wrestling with the concept of self and assimilating more and more human traits is just good fiction. It isn't quite up there with the idea of a creator god. But it is fairly silly stuff.