humor me, dramadramaduck.

[nonesodangerous]

A particular opinion has been brought to my attention recently. "Flesh and blood matters more than electronics," I was told. So, out of interest, please place the following types of entities in order of importance, from 1-20, in your opinion:

Comments

[assistant_god]

1. a human being, with no augmentations, a human being genetically modified to be superior, a human being with superficial mechanical/cybernetic alterations, such as replaced limbs, a human being with extensive cybernetic alterations, essentially a human brain in a constructed shell, an uploaded human consciousness inside a computer, an uploaded human consciousness inside a robotic body, an uploaded human consciousness inside a mostly/all flesh body, an evolutionarily-developed electronic consciousness inside a computer, an evolutionarily-developed electronic consciousness inside a robotic body, an evolutionarily-developed electronic consciousness inside a mostly/all flesh body, a sentient, human-created AI inside a computer, a sentient, human-created AI inside a robotic body, a sentient, human-created AI inside a mostly/all flesh body, an AI with no sense of self inside a computer, an AI with no sense of self inside a robotic body, an AI with no sense of self inside a mostly/all flesh body, a human being with no sense of self,

[nonesodangerous]

Why, in your opinion, is the program a lesser entity in comparison with all the others? Additionally, why is the outer apperance only important in the program's case?

[assistant_god]

A simple program is a tool, capable only of executing very specific functions, while by my definitions all the others count as individuals, whether they are aware of it or not.

The appearance is important only as it relates to its capabilities. In a world still led by humans, a program in a human seeming shell would be able to do more than one limited to a computer.

[nonesodangerous]

Do you mean that because of its appearance, it would be able to interact with humans better?

[netwarrior_exe]

I am... going to put "a sentient, human-created AI within a computer" here, because that's all I really have experience with... I don't really know where to put everything else...

[nonesodangerous]

Interesting.

[cakeordeathnote]

Mm.

[nonesodangerous]

Something to say?

[smilingtransfer]

I would tend to believe that anything with some form of sentience would be ranked the highest on most scales. It is difficult to say if an outside observer would be able to correctly identify sentience in some of these cases-- AIs, for example, lie in a rather tricky gray area, for who's to say that humans can or cannot truly create artificial sentience? And in terms of AIs that are not human-developed, and instead came about by themselves, the very concept is so alien to us that many would refuse to believe that they are able to be self-aware at all, simply because they may be self-aware on a different level than humanity. And then, of course, we get into the tricky problem of what you would term as importance. If a simple, non-sentient program had, say, some sort of ability that would greatly benefit the entire human race, and it was to be protected at the expense of any who attempted to destroy it, then we would be placing that program as more important than the lives that were lost to protect it. But then, of course, that may not

[nonesodangerous]

You raise several interesting points. Time and again, you impress me with you powers of reasoning and logic.

I was not expecting much variety. I merely wished to see if the belief expressed to me by Ban Midou was one shared by other members of the community.

[smilingtransfer]

I tend to enjoy mental calisthenics.

I take it this is related to the program you tried to design for the community?

[nonesodangerous]

It is vaguely related, yes.

[pow_hammer]

Um, what's an AI?

[nonesodangerous]

An artificial intelligence.

[pow_hammer]

Oh... what's that?

[nonesodangerous]

An intelligence that is produced by a computer program, in duplication or imitation of natural intelligence. It is the ability of a machine to perform actions thought to require intelligence, including logical deduction and inference, creativity, the ability to make decisions based on past experience or insufficient or conflicting information, and the ability to understand spoken language.