(urth) AI souls
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
danldo at gmail.com
Mon Dec 6 10:49:32 PST 2004
H'mmmm ... Interesting.
Another example of machines MAYBE becoming ensouled
would be the Talusses (Tali?) of the Long Sun Whorl.
It seems clear to me that Wolfe is suggesting that something
like a soul happens at a certain level of complexity and
especially of _communication_. The word he uses is "speech,"
but I suspect that the word he is avoiding - and why should
Wolfe not avoid key words and facts every bit as much as his
own characters? - is "word," or rather "Word," _logos_.
God speaks World into existence, and all the creatures in
it; God then ensouls Man by "breathing" into his nostrils
- but the Hebrew word translated as "breath" can as easily
be translated "spirit" or "wind." And we speak with our
breath.
Speech is breath is spirit.
--Dan'l
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