Stargate Atlantis on robotic consciousness
Posted on May 18th, 2008
by 
Domi333
Domi333
So I was watching stargate atlantis ep 3.05 about an encounter with a supposedly advanced race living like the 'ancients'...turns out they're robots, made of nanosize machines called nanobots adapting to organic structure and complex android structure...the question is, are they conscious beings or mechanised beings acting as if conscious?
i once read about the turing test, a test designed to check if robots were capable of consciousness...back to atlantis now, the replicators retorted that humans were beings made up of cells working together(just like their nanobots had been), the key was that the robots connected through a subspace master signal, that designated their prime directive(problem was as well, that niam, an android, couldn't ascend supposedly due to an inherent aggression function in their system)...
Generally I would say that they had achieved consciousness especially after tapping into the SGA team's minds, but in the real world? from what i've learnt, consciousness is an active part in the universe(in hinduism it's called chit, the ultimate cosmos is thus sat, chit, ananda - existence, consciousness, bliss, I think I may have finally understood what people meant when they said even rocks had consciousness or souls(Ramana Maharshi, shinto...)
This series is of course fictional but the metaphysical issues it deals with are incred.(some Star Trek episodes were good for this too)
Personally, I'm still working out whether to focus on nirvana moksha, or supremantalising the body(aurobindo, the mother...still, i know that i'm aiming for the heights..
Dom
i once read about the turing test, a test designed to check if robots were capable of consciousness...back to atlantis now, the replicators retorted that humans were beings made up of cells working together(just like their nanobots had been), the key was that the robots connected through a subspace master signal, that designated their prime directive(problem was as well, that niam, an android, couldn't ascend supposedly due to an inherent aggression function in their system)...
Generally I would say that they had achieved consciousness especially after tapping into the SGA team's minds, but in the real world? from what i've learnt, consciousness is an active part in the universe(in hinduism it's called chit, the ultimate cosmos is thus sat, chit, ananda - existence, consciousness, bliss, I think I may have finally understood what people meant when they said even rocks had consciousness or souls(Ramana Maharshi, shinto...)
This series is of course fictional but the metaphysical issues it deals with are incred.(some Star Trek episodes were good for this too)
Personally, I'm still working out whether to focus on nirvana moksha, or supremantalising the body(aurobindo, the mother...still, i know that i'm aiming for the heights..
Dom
Access: Public
androids
June 2008
I saw that episode a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. I hadn't thought too much about it at the time, but it does fit into my recent thinking about Philip K. Dick. I've been thinking a lot about PKD's ideas about androids. I've watched Blade Runner several times recently and plan on doing a blog on it soon. I also want to blog about a book I finished recently titled The Melancholy Android.
Personally, I see no reason why a robot can't be conscious. I'd be surprised if machines didn't eventually develop self-awareness. I tend to think that all of existence is consciousness on some fundamental level. I appreciated the views of Christian de Quincey in his book Radical Nature.
I don't fully understand the idea of supremantalising the body, but I'm more drawn to that kind of thinking than idealization of absolute transcendence.
Ben,
I've thought of reading that 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' book, the title itself is incredible!
Blade runner, I have to look at it again because I'm forgetting it at the moment.
I am running into an internal argument on this futuristic 'gnostic being', supposedly we'll be on the borders of spirit(consc.) and matter…a purification of the faults of the world(suffering etc.)
One book I read or something I saw on the internet stated that we would change and the earth would change then we would move into the dimension of the subtle worlds (fairyland etc.), now that's fairly fanciful but still shows a possibility regarding the shift…
I'm starting to think of Q those beings in Star Trek that are all named the same beyond matter yet sometimes returning to matter but it's not an ascension it's a spiritualisation of what's here….only time will tell I guess