Poll: Do Robots Have Souls?

[JordanXlord]

I don't believe in the concept of souls, as I'm an atheist. Therefore, my stance is that when technology reaches the stage where we can create robots capable of independent thought and reasoning, they are essentially human. Any lifeform capable of true sentience is socialized from birth, or construction, meaning that a robot capable of thought and the like, if not installed with some sort of chip to block out change, will start to develop their personality accordingly, therefore they have what we humans call a soul.

I finally found a like minded individual

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Well, no. But neither do humans so what's the problem?

This.

There's no such thing as a soul, so no.

ninja'd repeatedly.

no such thing as "souls". hell, even most ancient religions didn't promote belief in souls. the word translated soul in the Bible just means "living being"; and "spirit" just means "breath". so, if a robot can be be considered to be truly alive, then it'd have just as much or as little claim to souls as humans do.

 

[Marik2]

I was reading Negima earlier (fellow fans will get the reference) and it made me wonder something. Here's the scenario,

A scientific team creates a robot, the very latest tech, it has independant thought, can have detailed conversations with humans, sharing and exchanging new knowledge and even ethical views on subjects, it can make its own decisions on what is right and wrong and even decides how to spend its own time, and, and this is the real important factor, it even has the capacity to fall in love.

The question is, does this robot have a soul? Personally I would say yes, I don't think our origins should determine our right to be human beings, rather, our personalities and emotions should be. Doctor Who once said, "there's more to being human than flesh and blood"

EDIT: sorry, I don't mean to sound bossy, but a lot of people are openly saying "souls don't exist", so can we just respect other people's views and not state our own as if they are concrete. You don't KNOW that for a fact so could we please say "I think", thanks.

I love that manga.

And to answer your question, yes if the robot is capable doing all those things then yes she does have a soul.

I mean if she didnt have one the pactio card wouldnt have worked

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Define "soul" for me, please. Then I can give you my input.

 

[Teh Ty]

I think servebots have souls.
Except for the wide eyes.
Those can keep me up at night.

Spoiler

 

[Googooguru]

lol .. show me a truly self-aware human ... conversations into the human condition always remind me of Waiting for Godot.. so instead of contemplating the soul lets all swap hats and contemplate suicide while we avoid the uncomfortable silence inherent in our lives

 

[pyroghast]

i belleave that robots could never have souls at least in our current understanding of technology because you would have to program emotion witch is(as i stated before)beyond our current understanding of technology. because of the potently limitless number of variables in portraying that emotion in the right instances. that is assuming that you consider the soul to be the expression of emotion because a being cannot have a moral compass without emotion else you would have no views on the subject at hand and thus not be able to make a choice one way or another of your free will(not programed to).

 

[SkellgrimOrDave]

Depends on your definition of soul, but no, they don't, for a very simple reason.

A robot, no matter how advanced, no matter how complex its AI, is still just that. A robot, nothing more than a very advanced calculator, which you could argue is all the human brain is, but then again, robots are wholley and undeniabley created and artificial. Take the AI in advanced video games like crysis (I know, bad example), but still, it's AI.

The AI is created to do certain things in certain situations, nothing more. It can't create, think, inspire, ponder, dream or do anything else. It's just wiring, no imagination, no dreams, no nothing, nothing spontanious, nothing creative.

Unless of course we programme it so.

So no, they don't. And talk about respecting opinions all you want, but if it is someone's opinion that someone elses opinion is just stupid, who is more right in their opinion?

 

[imagremlin]

Umh. No, If I dont get one, certainly my Roomba doesn't get one either.

 

[DarklordKyo]

I was reading Negima earlier (fellow fans will get the reference) and it made me wonder something. Here's the scenario,

A scientific team creates a robot, the very latest tech, it has independant thought, can have detailed conversations with humans, sharing and exchanging new knowledge and even ethical views on subjects, it can make its own decisions on what is right and wrong and even decides how to spend its own time, and, and this is the real important factor, it even has the capacity to fall in love.

The question is, does this robot have a soul? Personally I would say yes, I don't think our origins should determine our right to be human beings, rather, our personalities and emotions should be. Doctor Who once said, "there's more to being human than flesh and blood"

EDIT: sorry, I don't mean to sound bossy, but a lot of people are openly saying "souls don't exist", so can we just respect other people's views and not state our own as if they are concrete. You don't KNOW that for a fact so could we please say "I think", thanks.

Assuming souls exist (I'm not one who'll absolutely deny their existence, but I'm agnostic, so I know I can't prove them & I'll leave it at that), I would say Chachamaru does have one. Like you said, she can actually determine right from wrong, not to mention she does genuinely have humanlike emotions (like when she was revealed, before Negi's fight against Evangeline earlier on, to be quite saintly towards children and animals) and even cried when Hakase (her creator\mom for those who don't read Negima) deciphered that she harbored a crush on Negi. Also, this is a manga wherein magic exists, so it's no stretch that the Yaoyorozu no Kami (eight million gods) is true in the Akamatsuverse (essentially, a shinto belief that everything, even if it's synthetic, bears a soul). In summation, yes, I believe Chachamaru has a soul.

 

[thePyro_13]

No. And even if they did, We'd need a better definition of "Soul". After all, using my current definition of soul, not even humans have them, so why would robots?

 

[Singularly Datarific]

If a machine is created to live, rather than to serve, it has a soul.
However, think about the degradation of morality and kindness as this progresses.
*warning: religious talk*
Since a PERFECT God has created us crappy humans, with BEST of intent, one can only imagine how shitty its soul would turn out of WE tried to make something...
*end religious talk*

 

[Deacon Cole]

Humans are just chemical robots, so no.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

No they do not have souls (In the conventional and spiritual sense), but if a robot becomes self aware I'd advise you to destroy it IMMEDIATELY!!!

Robots becoming self-aware and having a free-will have never turned out well for humanity.

Sky-net = Terminator
The Matrix = Enslavement of humanity within a virtual world
Megaman = Zero going nuts in the Cataclysm and spreading the wiley virus.

The Matrix was a poor choice, Robots were the good guys and kept Humanity alive in their own virtual paradise.

OT:Impossible to tell as we don't even know if Humans have souls.

NO NO NO!!! Both the Humans and the Robots were bad. Seriously was Asimov having a day off when they made the Matrix? Humans were stupid enough to try and create an evolving A.I. and abuse it while the robots basically rebelled against their masters.

The 3 rules are implemented for a reason and when someone tries to wise up and try to make a robot with a free will it never ever works.......EVER

Rebelling against your master makes you a bad guy?

Any non-human force that is willing to rise up against humanity can be seen in so many was as bad. Why should an artificial man made machine be shown sympathy? It can't necessarily feel the same sadness as humans do and I highly doubt that it is capable of true emotions. A robot is designed to fufill its purpose. If it can't then it is defective and should be disposed of. Call me cold, but a robot is something I'm not willing to give rights.

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" - Optimus Prime.

I think the arguements going on here could be better described as can robots achieve sapience. I believe they could: whether or not these will be man made machines or mechanical life forms from a distant star I have no ideas, but I'm siding with Captain Picard on this one.

 

[Sejs Cube]

Put another mark in the "No, because there is no such thing as a soul" category.

Humans are still humans. You don't need some separate ethereal component to make that something worthwhile. A lot of the soul malarkey has to do with the ingrained fear of death. Oh no, people die so there has to be an untouchable, eternal component of us that doesn't die and goes on to live forever in what is somehow the grown-up equivalent of believing that Fido got taken to live on a farm where he'll be happy.

Robots don't have souls. Humans don't have souls. But that's okay, because I'm sorry to say that souls are a rather childish notion to begin with. One we don't really need to cling to.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Who cares? As long as they keep manufacturing shit and operate computer programs(yes, they are actually used for something outside of plot-points for sci-fi movies), than why should we concern ourselves for such questions?

 

[loremazd]

Do people really assume by default that souls exist? These days? I sincerely hope not.

The concept is just blatant rationalization, an easy explanation for our complex behaviour. And since humans have obvious reasons to believe in them (because it makes us special), it's reasonable to assume we made them up. Science has proven that complexity can arise spontaneously from simple interacting systems, no divine inspiration required there.

An A.I. would probably just be a bewilderingly complex set of algorithms that interact to create a flexible and free-willed consciousness like our own. It would just seem like it was "ensouled" because of emergence - the whole system does things that none of its component parts normally can. But that's just math, not spiritual force.

EDIT: And about its "rights" - if we get to the point where we can craft new intelligences, I guess we'll have to broaden our human rights into... "sentient rights" or something. But it might take a while for religious outrage to die down. I mean, pan-sentient rights would basically mean that we're all just AIs, only humans are biological.

I'm in love with my girlfriend, I'm not "in chemical reactions synapsing in my brain with my girlfriend."

Words are words, a soul simply is the poetic concept of the spark of life. The capability of reason, thoughts, emotions, self awareness, empathy, and introspection.

I swear, this new breed of cynical intellectuals really love putting a big vacuum and sucking out culture and poetry.

 

[Grospoliner]

And can not a soul be a side-effect of all your cognitive processes, that it can be indeed quantifiable, we just lack the measuring-equipment as of now? Nothing says that it HAS to be fully spiritual, just because we haven't found the LINK yet.

Not at all, and I can't help but view that idea as tantamount to mental equivocation. If such a thing as a soul existed, it would be tangible, measurable, and identifiable as it would connect directly to a human body. It would be as tangible as the electrical impulses that arc between our synapse. As I said before, it's a primitive idea, a hold over from humanities birth to comfort our ancient ancestors thrust into a world it doesn't comprehend. The metaphysical creation of the soul exists only due to the fear of death.

 

[DarkRyter]

Souls don't exist.

Our minds are the result of incredibly complex brain calculations involving nervous electrical charges and chemical hormones.

A suitably advanced robot could possibly mimic that behavior down to the point that mentally, they are completely human.

 

[jawakiller]

A robot is not capable of even simple emotions. They can imitate them but not actually create them so therefore they have no souls. Of course they will take over the world one day and put us all into a video game. Nerd paradise, all the way.

How do you know that they can't "create" emotions? Are you an AI-engineer? What does emotions have to do with a soul?

First off, I know everything. And I can be everywhere at once, I'm in your bathroom right now checking out your collection of shampoo... Come on, I'll be the first to say "we don't know everything" but I'm using what information I have to conjure up a realistic answer. Technically both you and I know absolutely nothing because everything known to us is based on a created sense of reality. If this reality were incorrect... So nothing can be proven as fact. That also means our definition of soul could be totally wrong.