Artificial Intelligence and Angelology :: Technology Science Computers Essays

Artificial Intelligence and AngelologyABSTRACT Recently, as I impart become more computer-literate, I have noticed both(prenominal) arouse parallels between computer mechanisms and Aquinas metaphysics of angelic faculties. The present essay expands on some of the analogies which Aquinas himself, though no proponent of AI theory, might have found interesting.One of the philosophy newsgroups on the Internet is authorise comp.ai.philosophy. This group features constant variations on questions such as how close potty artificial intelligence (particularly computers) approximate to tender-hearted consciousness? is free depart reducible to neurological mechanisms? and so forth. From my unscientific sampling, I would estimate that the business organization of this newsgroup is almost evenly split between those who tend towards a subtractive materialism, and those who maintain that consciousness or some element in human consciousness is not reducible to neural structures or functio ns. So the virtuous Hobbes vs. Berkeley debate continues on into the twenty-first millennium.One of the problems facing those who theorize almost the independence and irreducibility of consciousness is the fact that it is difficult to conceptualize the essence of consciousness, as distinct from the sensations, feelings, etc. that are often associated with consciousness. Here we are in spades getting into abstract metaphysics. Medieval philosophers such as Aquinas, Duns Scotus and Suarez faced up to this challenge with a little help from Christian revelation, by speculating about the characteristics and functions of angels or separate substances, who would presumably exemplify consciousness in its unadulterated state, without any distracting admixtures. In this paper, I would like to take a weigh in particular at Aquinas theory of separate substances. With this theory, we bypass the hoary question of the reducibility or irreducibility of consciousness to its material conditions , and we also find, in my opinion, some interesting analogies to contemporary computer technology. It would be too much to promise that these analogies, even if substantial, would instigate a revival of interest in Angelology among technophiles. hardly those interested in the metaphysics of the mind-body problem may find them suggestiveMicroprocessors and gratifying Self-possession The microprocessors of todays computers are integrated circuits which contain the mainframe computer on a single chip. The latest developments, with variable clock speeds now often transcend 200 MHz, include Intells Pentium chip, the IBM/Apple/Motorola PowerPC chip, as well as chips from Cyrix and AMD. The CPU chip is the heart of the computer only memory and input-output devices have to be added. A small fan might be added on spinning top of the fastest chips to cool them down, but in the chip itself there are no moving parts, no complex gaps between the movement world imparted and that which impar ts the movement.