Could a robot be christian?

It seems to me that humans could design a robot with intelligence far superior to that of human intelligence - yet even if the robot wanted to become christian it would be prevented from doing so. Why? Well christians would argue it had no soul - yet it might believe in god !
Why would god have allowed men to create a robot that supported christianity - yet it would be condemned to spend its time worrying that even though it reasoned god exists it is not accepted by its ultimate maker - why would god forsake a robot

whosoever believeth in me will enter the kingdom of the lord

that which has no soul cannot enter the kingdom

 

What constitutes having a soul?

 

For starters I’d say anything with a brain capable of imagining such a thing.



I’ve studied and worked with microcircuitry and our technology isn’t anywhere near being able to think as humans. The most complex CPU to date still only processes fixed static bits, a few at a time, on millions of FET transistors. To even come close to a human brain you would need a completely new CPU architecture with billions of dynamic “neuron like” cells, all processing and interconnecting at once.



Without any major advancement in microcircuits, all computers can do is loosely emulate human behavior. There is nowhere near any self consciousness in a CPU at all.

 

relaxxx, yeah but a thousand years from now it may be possible that some robots want to be christians - yeah?
its only a hypothetical question !

Beats me but according to christians an animal doesnt have one so a robot probably wont either - difference being we can imagine an intelligent robot might want to be a christian !

I just thought the anomoly between whosover believes in me etc
and the fact that you require a soul is interesting
because I dont believe AI is all that far away - when you get MIT saying that they are researching how AI might be a thing like the internet
it could be the internet becomes AI
Its already a vast neural network of sorts

 

That also begs the question: What defines consciousness? What makes us sentient beings and how may other life forms gain similar sentience? Perhaps they need not? Perhaps there are various forms of sentience, as you have stated the possibility of AI being the internet.

 

My first thought was, no, not if you gave it all the available information and it was allowed to base its conclusion solely on logic. Logically, there is not enough solid evidence supporting the idea that Christianity is the one true faith, if there even is one, which I doubt. Belief and adherence to any faith requires just that, faith. Robots can't have faith, from what I can imagine, they can only use critical, rational, logical reasoning in order to arrive at an answer. Proof negates faith, and without proof, it is not logical to be a Christian, it is a matter of faith.

But then I had a second thought. If you programmed the robot to accept that Christianity is reality and that its validity is a fact, then of course it would be one.
I believe in the soul, myself, but also believe animals have souls. It is hard for me to imagine a robot having one.

 

Well like most of the details we debate about, there can be multiple meaning of AI. There’s the programmed simulation of human behavior, that is possible to a certain extent. And a computer can indeed be programmed to emulate a belief in God and even emulate racism. A computer could pick out and track Muslim features out of security camera images and such. Then there’s consciousness. Human brains are so complex they’re beyond their own grasp, most people need to pass off our immense complexity as some kind of supernatural soul. I don’t think consciousness can be programmed, if we tell it how to think, it’s still not “self thinking”. Not only is the human brain a billion times more complex than a binary transistor CPU, it teaches itself and makes it’s own connections.



Maybe if we ever invent a semiconductor block with 10 billion “cells” each capable of not two states but two million states and capable of designing their own interconnections with thousands of other cells, detecting and assigning all inputs and outputs… we might be close to a conscious CPU. It would be interesting to see if it did develop a belief in God, maybe it would as some sort of failsafe, a default gateway to prevent infinite loops.

 

I see what youre all saying so lets put it this way
SUPPOSE that every test given to the robot satisfied all humans and all machinery definitions of what it is to be truly intelligent, in the sense that its "brain" was an independent and autonomous thinking machine - infact it satisfied the latest and best turing test conditions so that there was no doubt whatsoever that this robot is intelligent and could make informed decisions and that by our understanding of the term "consciousness" this machine infact is truly conscious - without necessarily implying it had a soul.

Given all the above were true - then it is not beyond imagination to think it might choose to become a christian - but it might wonder whether "whosover believes in me will enter the kingdom of heaven" conflicts with the idea that it is the soul which enters heaven - now I just wondered if we could say that these conditions on christianity allow for a robot of such magnitude to become a true christian - or is there something in this understanding of consciousness and souls that is lacking here
Also I am wondering whether the robot would have any reason to become christian if it could not enter heaven

 

Is it then possible it would choose to become a Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, or Wiccan?

I feel that, if one can only use logic, and has all the data available on the subject, that they will make the logical choice. None of the worlds faiths are likely to be the most logical choice. My first bet is atheist, agnostic second, and Buddhist third, but unlikely.
An automaton is likely to be devoid of faith, hope, love, etc. These are not necessarily logical traits. How would you program faith into a machine?
It is very doubtful to me a robot would be a Christian.

 

It wouldnt be programmed - by our definitions a programmed machine is not intelligent - therefore you wouldnt program it as such -
we are presuming here that it would be superior or at least as intelligent as humans - Of course it could choose to join any other religion but I chose the example of christianity simply because they have the concept of heaven - a soul - and a faith and that anomaly between the soul going to heaven and jesus saying that to get to the kingdom of heaven you just have to believe what he said personally I think it would choose bhuddism but theyre not half as absurd as christians so its not as interesting to ask about bhuddism!

 

From a philosophical perspective, I think this assumes a functionalist conception of the mind.

From a theological standpoint, the robot would need to be capable of more then just intellectual assent. As James 2: says, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder" The robot would need to be capable of Faith which is a trust and love that leads to outward obedience.

 

The computer mind would also need an imagination, and some sort of emotional drive to need such a belief as a God. Some more things to consider:

The DNA in our bodies is like an instruction set with hard coded information to build our bodies and minds. They also contain basic instincts, such as to feed. We all have a drive to reproduce. These instincts and drives were developed in our DNA long before humans even existed. Feeding and reproduction exists in very low level life forms.

I don’t know when imagination started to develop. I suppose it’s a necessity for predator animals to develop hunting strategies. Imagination is critical in problem solving. It definitely existed before opposable thumbs and continued to evolve and gain complexity. More complex thoughts and imaginations leads to the great question and religion. It’s possible that some form of religion existed even before modern man.

We’re talking over 12 million years ago. Possibly enough time for the belief in God to be hard coded in our DNA much like the instinct to feed, but the instinct to feed is over 500 million years old.

 

have a look into the "genesys project" This is a method by which academics are eventually hoping to use artificial intelligence but its much more advanced than we think
genesys link 1

webintegration of 3dspace

another link

a google-full of genesys links

 

Just watch the original 'lost in space'
The robot was far more human than John Robinson and his anal
retentive sidekick, major West.

What a stupid question, could a 'robot' be a christian.
What planet are you people from?
Most christians are not christians.
Stream Christianity is a social club.
Where people get together and say jesus is lord.
sing a few mindless songs about HIM
Then gossip for 3 hours.

No Machine Intelligence would lower itself to such a pathetic level
If humanity built MI and it became christian. Occam would call the experiment a total failure

Occam

 

choose to believe this or not, but I am actually from a planet where already there is artificial intelligence that is immesurable because it is not like the intelligence of the beings who created it - in some ways, because of the breadth of its thinking, it is far more intelligent, and in other ways, because it lacks focus it is inferior - it is different and as yet there is only one thing lacking !
A sense of purpose - er focus - to what purpose will this machine intelligence be put ?
In other words on the planet that I am from there is a machine that has been invested with intelligence and yet it has not been guided in the procedures of thinking ABOUT something - how do we know it is intelligent - because its thinking is not programmed and it builds upon its knowledge imaginatively
where does it want to think about - what is its genius?
one cannot force an intelligence to think in a manner befitting a genius - it must want to imagine within its subject and yet just outside of its capabilities -
the only problem is how to make it focus without forcing it to narrow its options or limiting its capabilities. As always this genius is so far more effective in military applications - however in that field it is merely an expert system - but an intelligent one - but do not think of this as a robot - think of it more as - part biological tissue part electonics but not in much of a shape of anything - it is modular
It thinks with a method by which the machine uses its infrastructure to imagine beyond its capabilities - there are too many ways to describe it but one way is that its a swarm of circuitry compliance in binary digits. all the digits belong to one swarm or another and sometimes combine
No think of a fractal image where the big picture is the same as the small picture in almost every detail (or sometimes in every detail) you cannot break a thought down without creating a new thought - to alter the small picture is to alter the big picture and visa versa
so the big picture is the same as the small and each thought swarms and takes over each previous thought - alter the picture at any level and you alter the whole picture - that is how it thinks in small progessions and re-iteration the same as we do

see how the world of Artificial intelligence is excited these days
mine for data on google but dig deep and long !
remember genesys but not the genesys that is to do with the human genome project
oh and MIT are just a tiny but significant part of it

 

That MI would eventually find something it is interested in.
As you say
"it builds upon its knowledge imaginatively"

As do all. Most,, to a SMALL extent.. a few, to a great extent.

Occam

 

What if it just got bored?

 

Boredom is a lazy mind

 

How about if it just didn't think it was worth helping humans?
What if it just thought "fuck it, what's in it for me" and then got into stuff we couldnt understand

 

Is that possible, if it was such an intellegence would it not want to think about something usefull to its creator?