"The soul is a tricky one, because many people who believe in it tend to believe its eternal, and can't be created or destroyed. So machines could never have one. "
that is true and some people think that acknowledging the existence of a soul means acknowledging that it is eternal and immutable (same as I get peed off because people think that because I believe in God I automatically must believe in some kind of afterlife but that's a different story). The soul as eternal and immutable is only one take on the idea of what a soul is.
Aristotle argued that a soul doesn't have any independent existence outside the body and it is not therefore eternal, it dies when the body dies.From an Aristotlian perspective, I think machines can certainly have souls.
I think we are closer to replicating the oddly fluctuating goals we have, than to say, replicating wonder, lust, joy (sehnsucht), fascination, resentment. The biological imperatives behind the drive aren't such a mystery although the exact modus operandi is unknown.
jude
"Cacoethes scribendi"
http://www.judesworld.netjude
"Cacoethes scribendi"
http://www.judesworld.net
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