2014-03-23: A Singular Experience

[Nosy Neighbordroid]

Discussion thread for A Singular Experience

[taltamir]

ok, ever since the page where she was getting worried about making herself seem bad by comparison I wondered, why is she building her boyfriend a sexbot (I assumed she wanted threesomes).
But then I went back and reread the old pages and she is building her as a date for the elf. (instead of just saying she isn't friends with ann anymore)
Since he isn't her boyfriend, what does she care if about how the two of them compare?...

and by the time I finished writing out this long elaborate question I got my answer. Elf is close enough to her boyfriend's that they are going to compare girlfriends.

[lyze]

Elf is close enough to her boyfriend's that they are going to compare girlfriends.

Well there certainly is that. Then there's also that Jordan is just the sort of petty asshole who would have been jealous even if the sexbot was going to someone she'd never see again.

As to Jordan's speech about robots and sapience, here here, well said.

[Forrest]

I'm more concerned over the philosophical implications of something which "thinks it's sapient, but really isn't". That... doesn't seem like something that should be possible.

Something that produces sounds that say "I'm sapient", sure, doesn't have to be; I can make my computer do that and it's not sapient. But Jordan speaks as if the sexbot actually thinks it's sapient, but is wrong about that, which just doesn't make any sense.

I'm also unconvinced that it's possible to emulate sapience without actual sapience. You could have a sapient entity pretend to have different thoughts and feelings than it really does -- you could, say, have a central AI which is truly sapient, and controls a bunch of different robot bodies like finger puppets, affecting in each the mannerisms of a fictional character it's improvising lines for on the spot; and you could embed that AI in just one body, and have it continue the act still -- but behind the act there's still a sapient mind. If there isn't one, something capable of doing the introspection for the facade character (thinking "what would this character think and feel in reaction to this experience?", modeling another hypothetical or fictional mind with the kind of understanding that another actual mind can have), then you would in principle be able to tell some functional difference in the facade that would tip you off that it's not really sapient.

[Anthony]

I'm more concerned over the philosophical implications of something which "thinks it's sapient, but really isn't". That... doesn't seem like something that should be possible.

Depends on what standards you're using for defining sapience. The fact is, we don't have a good definition of what it even means to be sapient. Also, how do we know that it 'thinks' it's sapient? It just says that it thinks it's sapient.

[taltamir]

I'm more concerned over the philosophical implications of something which "thinks it's sapient, but really isn't". That... doesn't seem like something that should be possible.

pfft, I remember when sentient was all the rage, then we had to come up with sapient as a (completely unnecessary) clarification.

but, it should be entirely possible (although godly difficult) to make something that isn't sapient and is programmed to think it is. Because what is thought? Though is internal monologue, which you can program a non sapient thing to perform. Furthermore, any complex bit of code is comprised of multiple modules. This applies to both computers and humans. Your braincells actually have votes (the votes are fully analog. so a cell can vote +60 miliamps, +59, +58, etc. none of this "yes/no" or "yes/no/maybe" nonsense)

[dark_lord_zagato]

Perhaps we are not actually sapient and evolution has just built us to think that we are? I can see this girl quickly becoming the biggest source of annoyance in Jordan's life, especially if she points out the obvious flaw in Jordan's explanation and keeps insisting that she is sapient.

[Graybeard]

"I think I think. Therefore I think I am. I think."

-- Descartes, I think.

[taltamir]

Perhaps we are not actually sapient and evolution has just built us to think that we are? I can see this girl quickly becoming the biggest source of annoyance in Jordan's life, especially if she points out the obvious flaw in Jordan's explanation and keeps insisting that she is sapient.

just wait until she starts calling jordan "mom"

[Graybeard]

Wonder if Poe follows the webcomic "Sinfest"? This arc is beginning to feel like a send-up of the tendentious and preachy "Fembot" threads over there.