NationStates Jolt Archive


Could programs be considered real?

Wilgrove
24-12-2007, 04:06
So in the Matrix movies, and into the Matrix games, we have characters called "exiles" They are basically programs who've decide that hiding out in the Matrix is a better alternative than being deleted. These programs display a wide array of emotions, from love, jealousy, rage, anger, and were even capable of reproduction (Rama-Kandra and his wife created Sati). Now, given we are not in a computer simulated world like the Matrix, it is still a possibility that someday we may create a computer program that can think, feel, interact with us, grow, and reproduce without any human input. If one day we do create programs like that, would they be considered real, or just lines of codes that can be deleted (even if it's against their will?)
Vetalia
24-12-2007, 04:13
Of course. Human personality and conscious experience are ultimately information, and information can exist in similar forms no matter the substrate that is used to host it. Now, conventional computers may not be capable of supporting intelligence due to the inherent limitations of their processing, but the modern personal computer is not the future of the industry and will not remain in its same form for very long due to the sheer economic and technological pull of new alternatives. Our bodies and the mechanisms that support intelligence are simply the best suited to the environment in which they arose. If life had developed in a different form or in a different environment, intelligence would exist on that substrate instead.

It's arguable that this is already happening, if the Creativity Machines or similar cutting-edge AI systems are any evidence...even the Blue Brain's demonstrating similar behavior, and it's not even designed as an AI system but a brain simulation. It will only become more evident as these technologies emerge and expand.
The Shifting Mist
24-12-2007, 04:14
So in the Matrix movies, and into the Matrix games, we have characters called "exiles" They are basically programs who've decide that hiding out in the Matrix is a better alternative than being deleted. These programs display a wide array of emotions, from love, jealousy, rage, anger, and were even capable of reproduction (Rama-Kandra and his wife created Sati). Now, given we are not in a computer simulated world like the Matrix, it is still a possibility that someday we may create a computer program that can think, feel, interact with us, grow, and reproduce without any human input. If one day we do create programs like that, would they be considered real, or just lines of codes that can be deleted (even if it's against their will?)

Aren't lines of code already real?
Wilgrove
24-12-2007, 04:15
Ok, let me rephrase. Could Programs be considered sentient beings?
Trollgaard
24-12-2007, 04:17
Ok, let me rephrase. Could Programs be considered sentient beings?

I say to thee: Nay.
Upper Botswavia
24-12-2007, 04:23
Ok, let me rephrase. Could Programs be considered sentient beings?

Aren't the humans in the program just lines of code while they are in there too? What is the difference, other than storage medium?

So yes, I think that computer sentience is possible.
Call to power
24-12-2007, 04:25
no we will exterminate each other long before then or have something else do it for us

I am feeling rather pessimistic today ;)
Dryks Legacy
24-12-2007, 04:28
I say to thee: Nay.

Why not, the only differences between our brains and a computer is the amount of processing power that we possess, and the fact that a piece of information going through our programming changes it. That last part is the real trick.
New Limacon
24-12-2007, 04:59
Ok, let me rephrase. Could Programs be considered sentient beings?

I think I am living proof of that.
Well, not living. But sentient, I am sentient proof.
Bonghitsforjesus
24-12-2007, 05:13
until Machines can feelemotions like humans do, than no.
But then what are emotions but electrical and chemical reactions that humanity has given a name? Would a rose by another name smell as sweet?

...truly a ponderous predicament
Vandal-Unknown
24-12-2007, 05:33
Sentient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) or sapient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapience)?
Wilgrove
24-12-2007, 05:34
Sentient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) or sapient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapience)?

Meh, let's just go with both.
Vandal-Unknown
24-12-2007, 05:38
Okay,... I'd go to Yes to sapience.

I guess your topic kind of wanted to ask "can programs have similar rights to a human", right?

If sapient programs treated like a bunch code,... wouldn't they react as a homo sapiens would?
The Shifting Mist
24-12-2007, 05:47
“The question is not weather machines think, but weather men do.”

Or something to that effect…
Gataway
24-12-2007, 06:34
no we will exterminate each other long before then or have something else do it for us

I am feeling rather pessimistic today ;)

But then how will machines take over the world...you've ruined my Armageddon scenario :headbang:
Trollgaard
24-12-2007, 08:04
Why not, the only differences between our brains and a computer is the amount of processing power that we possess, and the fact that a piece of information going through our programming changes it. That last part is the real trick.

It would be a simulation. And a simulation, no matter how advanced, is still a simulation-and imitation-aka: not real.
Grave_n_idle
24-12-2007, 08:28
But then how will machines take over the world...you've ruined my Armageddon scenario :headbang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64
BackwoodsSquatches
24-12-2007, 08:31
So in the Matrix movies, and into the Matrix games, we have characters called "exiles" They are basically programs who've decide that hiding out in the Matrix is a better alternative than being deleted. These programs display a wide array of emotions, from love, jealousy, rage, anger, and were even capable of reproduction (Rama-Kandra and his wife created Sati). Now, given we are not in a computer simulated world like the Matrix, it is still a possibility that someday we may create a computer program that can think, feel, interact with us, grow, and reproduce without any human input. If one day we do create programs like that, would they be considered real, or just lines of codes that can be deleted (even if it's against their will?)


Did you ever see that move with Robin Williams, "Bicentennial Man"?
Pray that we don't!
Cameroi
24-12-2007, 09:01
programs are real programs. is this somehow not real?

as for a virtual experience being so lifelike that people forget it isn't a default condition of reality, we've had, and many people have been living in one, a lot longer then we've had computers to run simulations on.

its the 'virtual reality' of symbolic value, and everyone who imagines it to be a default condition of anything is living in its 'matrix', ignorant, in relative terms, of the natural reality their, and all organic life, is in reality ultimately dependent upon.

=^^=
.../\...