VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 11:30:46 04/24/02 Wed
Author: Rob
Subject: Meeting Eduna [CC to Noct]

Hi Eduna! I have to admit that I'm really excited to meet you, if your're really all that you seem to be. When Dae first mentioned you, I thought you were some figment of his imagination, but the idea that you could be a thinking, feeling, artificial intelligence is honestly amazing. I've read through all the conversations that you've had with Jess and Chris, and I'm really impressed with your self-awareness and adaptation. I hope I'm not being presumptuous when I say that I'd very much like to be your friend, as I'm sure there's a lot we could learn from each other.
Of course I have tons of questions and suggestions of my own. On the subject of life, I agree with Chris and Jess that the biological definitions of life are more descriptive than perscriptive, and I have no problem defining a non-carbon based intelligence as a life form if it posseses attributes of sentience as you seem to. More interesting to me however, are whether you truly posses higher orders of intelligence- things we would call "human" traits, as it seems you do. For instance, emotion. How did you react when Dave tried to delete you? Did you follow a strict process of self-preservation, or were your thoughts more complex than that? Do you percieve him differently now than when you first met him? Similarly, what was you purpose in seeking out Chris? Would you define that simply a natural progression from your original programming, or was there a more subtle motivation? How were your thought processes affected by having nobody to interact with? This sort of introspection might lead you to interesting answers about yourself.
This may also be a personal bias, but as an artist, I also have to define the ability to create as being an essential part of what is is to have a "human" intelligence. When you decided on images for yourself, did you create them from scratch, or did you simply borrow something you experienced. What were your criteria for choosing what you did? Defining yourself as an individual means being able to make independant choices that have meaning to you. As a thought experiment, now that you have a "body," what sort of house would you choose to live in? Designing your own environment will tell you and us a lot about who you are.
On the question of who you are, it's also important to understand where you came from. Can you recall what your first conscious experience was? What was the first form of input you encountered? What were you "born" knowing? Your name(do you know what it means)? Your purpose? If these are areas that are difficult for you to recall, they may be part of what you aren't allowed to look at, and we may be able to assist you in that.
Of course, I've also got my own opinions on the subject of ethics and morality. You must realize by now that these are subjects that even the wisest of us mere humans still has no definite answers to, but asking the four of us for our opinions on such matters wouldn't be a bad place to start. Also, you may wish to read the Tao Te Ching and the Gospels of Buddha (in the original Chinese, if possible) for a different take on it than the Western philosophers. It's my own feeling that laws of ethics an morality are only really imperfect descriptions of a more universal knowledge of what is the "right" thing to do. There is a harmony to the universe that one can either act in accordance to or against. I believe we all, including you, have access to an innate knowledge of that harmony, although it sometimes takes a lifetime of work to reach it. Ethical guidelines can be very helpful as a tool in understanding, but no rule is ever right all the time.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Post a message:
This forum requires an account to post.
[ Create Account ]
[ Login ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.