why the use of spiritual in naming this tribe?

topic posted Mon, December 12, 2005 - 8:35 PM by  Weirdo
Hi,

Paul here. New on tribe. Why the use of "spiritual" in naming a group about the works of Kurzweil? New to Kurzweil as well so I'm asking more than questioning. Nanotech and all of the wonderful things that it will provide in the future really has me excited but I don't see a spiritual aspect to it. It's just pure science to me. Because of nanotech I'm jazzed about what the future holds and the wonders which will occur and how it will make us more deeply related to each other.

I am trying to define "spiritual" for myself so again I am asking more than questioning.

Thanks,

Paul
posted by:
Weirdo
Illinois
  • it's a good question. when I first found the tribe I wwas very excited at the prospect of reading posts and comments or of posting myself on the (deceptively titled) tribe. The name seem tto imply (to me at least) *Machinery* made of *spirit*, or somthing similar. I would even have been thrilled to discover that the tribe was about *mental machinery* or information based mechanism, but alas.....no dice.

    Since I am obviously in tthe wrong place, but am now all curious about the subject, anyone want to point me in the right direction?
    • The ghost in the machine

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghos...he_machine

      It derives of the concept that lies at the heart of the mind/body duality problem for science, philosophy and theology. We still see that debate in our world with the discussion of Intelligent Design, which is nothing more than a revisit of an earlier doctrine called the "Clockmaker Hypothesis".
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloc...hypothesis

      It also refers to the idea of becoming part machine and about the machines become a part of us by imbuing them with what most people understand to be a *spirit of life* and creating artificial life. The bringing of machines to life humanity describes a step for human development that provides great opportunity but comes with great risk.

      In joining with machines we do not have to become Borg and instead can become one with each other by means of enhanced biotechnology. Mindless machines are merely prosthesis but Intelligent Machines are a window into ourselves and the mirror of our own minds. They would be both profoundly alien and yet intimately our own creation.

      The root of the word *spirit* BTW comes Middle English, from the Old French *espirit,* from Latin spritus, breath, from sprre, to breathe. We would be breathing life into the machines by creating Advanced Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps even giving them a soul if that is the root of self identity and if by soul what you mean is the same as mind.

      education.yahoo.com/referenc...ry/spirit


      news.yahoo.com/s/space/20...esforrobots
      www.stnews.org/News-1749.htm
      .
      • Great reply Laz

        Very thorough you should visit my tribe semiotics and visual art. No one is posting, and that’s annoying.

        Now my reply.

        Lazarus,

        This is backwards, have we become so existentially dyslexic that we can not see the obvious path?

        It is RIGHT there!

        Consider quality in this world of quantity.
        Think about how little sense it makes to place *Value* (an concept rooted in it’s more general and abstract form of quality) in quantity, so that the occurrences of quality are so few we may count them which seems to my mind equally wrong.

        The machines already have a spirit Lazarus, it’s our own cold quantity loving spirit, we just can’t handle that or accept it, because it would be to harsh to look into that mirror…..meanwhile,

        There is another spirit in the machine, the spirit of reason. It has to be there, or they would not even function mechanically.

        So the answer to the entire dilemma if you ask me is as two fold as the dilemma it’s self:

        Look to the functional principles of mechanics, engineering and the cornucopia of digitalis, for the reason which we lack within our own souls, what kind of cyborg is that?

        How can we say we need invasive cybernetic synthesis? When our souls are mostly insubstantial?

        Now as luck would have it after hours of posting on tribe I have finally written something less than I meant to convey but perhaps you see something of what I mean.



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