How organic technology would effect religion (Input Please)?

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techn0teen
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25 Sep 2010, 11:19 pm

I have a dream to make a computer out of organic components. I have been thinking about this almost my whole, young life.

I am a computer engineering student, and I am working hard to make such a thing a reality, but I came to some startling conclusions about it.

1) If I could indeed make this organic computer, this would mean that I could theoretically make a system of chemicals aware of itself so it can repair and analyze itself. Does this mean mother nature is conscious to some degree?

2) If everything has a certain level of consciousness, based on what this organic computer might show, does that mean that the idea of a grand creator or consciousness has little to do with reality or is not needed?

Thank you for your inputs. I hope this is an interesting discussion for you all.



Sand
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25 Sep 2010, 11:28 pm

techn0teen wrote:
I have a dream to make a computer out of organic components. I have been thinking about this almost my whole, young life.

I am a computer engineering student, and I am working hard to make such a thing a reality, but I came to some startling conclusions about it.

1) If I could indeed make this organic computer, this would mean that I could theoretically make a system of chemicals aware of itself so it can repair and analyze itself. Does this mean mother nature is conscious to some degree?

2) If everything has a certain level of consciousness, based on what this organic computer might show, does that mean that the idea of a grand creator or consciousness has little to do with reality or is not needed?

Thank you for your inputs. I hope this is an interesting discussion for you all.


There is no necessity for consciousness in evolution. Stuff happens because there are physical processes that automatically eliminates stuff that doesn't work. When you drop a coin into an automatic dispenser the mechanism examines the coin and if it is not proper throws it out. Once the coin is accepted the machine automatically produces the product chosen. No consciousness is involved. The universe has certain basic laws which work the same as an automatic machine. No consciousness is necessary.



Awesomelyglorious
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25 Sep 2010, 11:28 pm

techn0teen wrote:
1) If I could indeed make this organic computer, this would mean that I could theoretically make a system of chemicals aware of itself so it can repair and analyze itself. Does this mean mother nature is conscious to some degree?

No, you are over-anthropomorphizing an abstract word. "Mother nature" is a common pantheistic kind of statement, however, "nature" is just our term for the biological life and ecosystems on our planet. There is no reason to think that this entails advanced cognitive processes, such as those necessary for consciousness, and nature does not behave in a manner we would expect of conscious life.

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2) If everything has a certain level of consciousness, based on what this organic computer might show, does that mean that the idea of a grand creator or consciousness has little to do with reality or is not needed?

How do you expect the organic computer to show that "everything has a certain level of consciousness"? How is an organic computer actually different than our non-organic computers other than perhaps the kind of technology you would have to use to construct it? It seems to me that if you can't already describe the logic needed to prove that "everything has a certain level of consciousness", then having a computer designed out of unorthodox material wouldn't change the matter. Such a computer might be better at certain kinds of processes, but it would follow logical rules like any useful computer would.



techn0teen
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26 Sep 2010, 1:35 am

@Awesomelyglorious, although those are excellent questions, I am not trying to put this in a scientific sense. Sorry if I did not make that clear.

I know that an actual organic computer would be a balanced system like the structure of nature predicts. No consciousness is required if it is designed correctly.

This computer is completely theorectical, because I have not developed a practical way to build it even though I am trying to.

I was trying to understand how religions and philosophy would interpret or react to a computer that would act and behave like an organism (except it could not reproduce or make copies of itself).



Wombat
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26 Sep 2010, 2:15 am

techn0teen wrote:
If everything has a certain level of consciousness, based on what this organic computer might show, does that mean that the idea of a grand creator or consciousness has little to do with reality or is not needed?


I remember a science fiction story from years ago.

They made the world's biggest computer and asked it "Is there a God?"

The computer replied "There is now!"



Asmodeus
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26 Sep 2010, 7:57 am

The next Patterson then? :)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/dec/26 ... s-scitech/

Cells repair themselves. This isn't consciousness, it's just all the ones that failed to do this died.
This would be a lengthy undertaking, here's some links.

http://diybio.org/
http://openwetware.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7559508.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/358822.stm

If you really want to do this, get a textbook/course/community.



leejosepho
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26 Sep 2010, 8:02 am

techn0teen wrote:
... trying to understand how religions and philosophy would interpret or react to a computer that would act and behave like an organism (except it could not reproduce or make copies of itself).

I suspect the late-comer would get little more than a casual, dismissive glance.


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Awesomelyglorious
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26 Sep 2010, 10:10 am

techn0teen wrote:
@Awesomelyglorious, although those are excellent questions, I am not trying to put this in a scientific sense. Sorry if I did not make that clear.

I know that an actual organic computer would be a balanced system like the structure of nature predicts. No consciousness is required if it is designed correctly.

This computer is completely theorectical, because I have not developed a practical way to build it even though I am trying to.

I was trying to understand how religions and philosophy would interpret or react to a computer that would act and behave like an organism (except it could not reproduce or make copies of itself).

Umm.... I don't think your question makes any sense BUT the scientific sense. Most religions don't actually talk about "organic computers" and on the subject matter, they are often very likely to defer to science. Maybe some Eastern religions will take a different view, but probably not.(New Age are really likely to take a different view)

Your words "balanced system" and "structure of nature predicts" don't make sense to me.

"Scientism" is a philosophy. It is one that a good number of philosophers follow. Even further, a lot of religions don't put a high distinction on whether something is an organism or not, and when it comes down to a highly complex issue, there is a good chance they'll defer to science.(as I said earlier) A lot of religions really only care for human beings.



naturalplastic
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26 Sep 2010, 11:09 am

Im old fashioned. So im a bit confused.

I thought 'organic computers" already existed.
Arent they called "human beings?."

Indeed even non human animals, and even brainless plants process informaton and make decisions based on such processing.

Computers were originally concieved of as "artificial brains".

So you're proposing to construct articifical-artificial brains. Biological versions of mechanical brains that were originally built to simulate naturally existing biological human/animal brains. Biological copies of electronic copies of biological orginals.

The point of this would be to create a computer that feeds and heals itself like an organism, but that serves humans like an electronic appliance.

Have I got it right?

Well- if it were possible to do that- yeah that would raise alot interesting ethical questions.

If this technoology were to happen it would probably happen by way of DNA engineering.

The brainiest organism on Earth is man. So presumably you would take the human genome and minipulate it to created your living biological computer. A hypersmart human brain in a box.

But would this creation BE human?
Would it have the rights of a human?

Beats me.
i can concieve of the questions.
But not the answers.



ruveyn
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26 Sep 2010, 5:10 pm

Sand wrote:

There is no necessity for consciousness in evolution. Stuff happens because there are physical processes that automatically eliminates stuff that doesn't work. When you drop a coin into an automatic dispenser the mechanism examines the coin and if it is not proper throws it out. Once the coin is accepted the machine automatically produces the product chosen. No consciousness is involved. The universe has certain basic laws which work the same as an automatic machine. No consciousness is necessary.


Consciousness is a physical process. Everything that exists is physical.

ruveyn



Sand
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26 Sep 2010, 7:52 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Sand wrote:

There is no necessity for consciousness in evolution. Stuff happens because there are physical processes that automatically eliminates stuff that doesn't work. When you drop a coin into an automatic dispenser the mechanism examines the coin and if it is not proper throws it out. Once the coin is accepted the machine automatically produces the product chosen. No consciousness is involved. The universe has certain basic laws which work the same as an automatic machine. No consciousness is necessary.


Consciousness is a physical process. Everything that exists is physical.

ruveyn


Irrelevant.



Adamantus
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29 May 2015, 12:01 pm

Quantum computers are basically organic.