Subject: A Living [World]?
Username: ALEXANDER
Amphipteryx, with all due offence: you sound puerile, like a child who never grew out of his fantastical ideas, hopes, and dreams. Either that, or you fully believe this and can’t separate reality from fiction. In which case, I recommend going to your local clinic and telling them about these ideas and philosophies of yours. They might be able to help you after further analysis. You have at least one thing going for you, and that’s the recognition that you might be “talking out of [your] ass.” If it’s not to placate, then maybe your issue is just the former problem. I hope that’s all it is for you.
Seraphim01, think of the brain as a muscle. If it’s not used, it begins to atrophy and forgets how to be used. Though in its infancy, there’s a
theory regarding external stimulation to remind the brain how to function. If the brain remembers how to do basic functioning, then there’s reason to believe that it’ll gradually regain “muscle” and be able to function almost properly again. Certainly not as well as before comatose, but this means that sentience isn’t lost in a “dead brain.” The brain might look dead, but it could just be atrophied. So, one can’t simply write off those as comatose as “alive but not sentient.” (Never mind the sort of abuse that could invite on the patients, either.)
Otherwise (though I'm not saying that I agree with you), I can see with what you say and where you’re coming from. And even then, there’s the quandary that “proof” whether an A.I. has the sort of sentience and sapience an organic person does is impossible. Even if not initially programmed to, say, cry, they could have software that teaches them how to analyse, mimic, and replicate stimuli the same way humans do. One could argue: “but it’s the same way with humans!” Alas, it’s not. The difference between humans and A.I. is that humans learn how to communicate their needs right from infancy by expressing their emotions. Crying, laughing, anger, fear. A guardian can register what these things entail: hunger? needs affection? over stimulated so needs rest? The list continues. Artificial intelligences don’t really have needs like that.
Now, we could get onto the topic of other lifeforms as
Squ33k mentioned. The topic here, is not so much about “living” as plants are, but rather sentience. For those that believe that plants do have some sort of spirit, this falls under “Animism,” which is the oldest human religion in IRL history. So, let’s not dive into that line of path, shall we?
Let’s continue on the quandary if Artificial intelligences is, in fact, as living as the standard mammalian creature – like humans. And we’ll stick with humans as A.I. were made in the human’s image, not in a plant’s image. They don’t have a body, so the only thing that could distinguish them as “living” is not by similar means to plants, aquatic lifeforms, and so on, but rather their “sentience” and “sapience.” Ignoring bodily needs, such as food, what differs sentience from no sentience? What differs humans and other animals from, say, their computer? It’s fairly easy:
Humans need (scientifically proven in studies)…
- To socialize. Humans are a social creature. Even the most introverted need some form of socializing
- Physical touch. Even if a person doesn’t respond well to physical touch, their brain actively needs it and will start to deteriorate without it. Things like holding or petting a cat fulfills this need; it doesn’t have to be just humans-to-humans
- Affection & admiration. Humans need to feel loved and admired in some way. Part of why video games are so appealing is that it fills an individual with a sense of fulfillment and competence, which can then turn into affection and admiration derived either from NPCs or other PCs.
- Respect. Humans need to have their boundaries respected in order to feel the former point, though they also need to respect others’ boundaries.
- Rest. To recharge social "batteries," not just the physical.
I’m certain there are more nuances, but do you think an artificial intelligence could ever need those things?
DandyLion, in my opinion: it’s very easy to forget that The World is not real. It’s a virtual
reality, and though in this version it’s not usually possible to feel stimuli such as physical pain, I’ve read that there is astronomically expensive gear that enables a player to feel some physical stimuli while playing The World. Regardless of that, though, it’s easy to feel as though The World is alive. The skies, the sunshine, the sound effects, the movement. The player is fully immersed in this world, and it may as well be almost as real as the world they come from. For those with more perceptive minds (ahem, like a certain someone in this thread), they may not be able to distinguish reality from virtual reality. It could be that they’re struggling with something in the real world and find that the virtual world is more comfortable and “homey” to them. Escapism is a deadly shield and weapon.
Of course, I could just be blowing things out of my ass too.
