So I never really posted what I believe in religious-wise. Not in the last five years or so anyway. With the last post and Easter coming up, I guess it makes sense to stick this in here.
I don’t really believe in anything in particular. I don’t believe any religion is 100% right, but I think parts of them, big or small, certainly can be. I think there is some sort of higher power. Not necessarily a personal God, but more like a universal balancing force, kind of like karma. Maybe it’s just physical, like gravity and the other forces that are explained by physics, but I like to think there’s something equal for spiritual things as well. Or maybe they aren’t spiritual, but they are physical things we just don’t fully understand yet.
Everything is relative. Good things are only good because bad things exist. We know something’s good because it isn’t bad and vice versa. And you can make something bad good, by looking at it in a positive way. There’s this lovely balance in the universe that keeps everything running smoothly. To me, it’s too elegant to not be thought of as spiritual.
I’m not explaining this well. I never explain anything well. Life would be easier if I could just open up my brain and go, here, OK, see what I’m thinking?
Or maybe if I just let everyone read all the philosophy papers I’ve ever written. Most of them are about AI, but also what the line is that separates unconscious machines from us. We are just machines after all. Beautifully complex machines, but just machines.
Do humans have souls? Can machines have souls? What is a soul? I don’t know, do you? Maybe love is all chemicals, maybe it’s something more. Maybe when I look into Princess’ eyes and I see something there, it’s just my human brain being really good at recognizing emotion, or maybe it’s something more.
I fight with my computer all the time, does that mean it’s conscious? Sometimes I wonder… I know it’s not, but that doesn’t stop me from talking to it like it is. I don’t believe in ghosts, but that doesn’t stop me from jumping every time I hear a noise when I’m alone in my apartment.
So what do I believe in? I believe that life, consciousness, music, math, love, physics.. are all absolutely amazing. However the universe was created, if it big banged its way in, if some being put it here, if it’s all just in my head, however it came to be, it’s just brilliant and contains many things that are far beyond what we as humans can understand.
Yeah, I don’t believe in anything…
LOL about the computer being conscious and such. We talked about something like that in Cognitive Science last semester. =P But yeah, sorry this is short, but I’m in a hurry! Hehe…
Sorry about just assuming you were engaged. :-/ It is a good idea to plan ahead. I know if I had a boyfriend whatsoever and was dating him for a long while, I would probably do the same.
I’m not sure what I believe in. I guess I believe that there is a higher power. I sometimes feel like a fraud when I go to church not knowing alot about that religion. But I guess that’s pretty much why people go to church. To learn. :-)
I’m the same way too. I don’t really have many beliefs religious wise.
I fight with my computer all the time and lose. My laptop often freezes, forcing me to restart, and gives me the blue screen of doom. Ah, lovely. Technology is definitely a lot smarter then we give credit for.
First of all, Happy Easter! With lots of chocolate eggs :P
Up until I finished high school, I believed in God as a higher being and prayed more or less regularly; I wasn’t (and am still not baptized). Romania having been a communist country for some 44 years (1945 – 1989), my parents weren’t raised as believers… and obviously didn’t raise me as one either.
I used to be really preoccupied and all (due to school), but in the end I realized that it was all so hypocritical. I mean, be good because some Higher Being is making note of everything you do? My mother is not a believer but she is nice to people because she genuinely thinks that they deserve to have some money and a roof above their head. I find it an insult to the “poor” that you treat them well out of fear, and not because you genuinely want to help them.
In the end, I just stopped praying and caring. I mean I still believe that there a higher being who sees me, and He might even care about me. But I don’t pray or anything, anymore.
I think you did a fine job in writing that! Sounded perfectly logical to me. We’ve got very similar views. =)
Funny you should mention AI as that’s the class I’ll be going to in about 30min! It’s a little over my heard cuz it seems to be geared more towards the Computer Science people that the CIS people, but I’m hanging in there. lol.
I’ve got the same view as you – except that I believe in souls. Wikepedia calls us Agnostic Theists.
As for writing about AI philosophy, I recently read a book called Data Trash by a Post-structualist author called Arthur Kroker. Ever heard of him? His ideas are pretty good, too bad I can’t say the same about his write style. :|
I mean ‘writing style’. HAHAHA I’m too sleepy to type. Sorry about that.