"People ask if machines can have souls. And I ask back whether souls can learn. [...]Why try to frame the value of a Self in such a singularly frozen form? [...] The agents, raw, that make our minds are by themselves as valueless as aimless, scattered daubs of paint. What counts is what we make of them."
The merit of the self lies entirely in its own coherency. This makes me think of the amazing complexity of a single cell, embodied in a textbook picture of a walk-through model cell at the Smithsonian. How could such order, such coherence, arise?
"What are those old and fierce beliefs in spirits, souls, and essences? They're all insinuations that we're helpless to improve ourselves."
Pearl Street | Society of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |