USH'S MATRIX GAME FOURTH ASSIGNMENT (PHILOSOPHY PATH)- 'The Journey'

"I don not know. Without seeing the code of these simulations, if they are indeed simulations(they may be people... 😛), we can only guess. I suppose if we saw the exact limit of what each could do we would be able to tell you. Anything that can make a descion when faced with something that isn't programmed into it is sentient. For all I know the string quartet are simply sound generators in the shape of moving humans, and the med team have every possible injury or disease programmed into them.

I guess the last is very likely. However your point about the butler is significant and I have been thinking about that since we first met him. Is he simply programmed to respond to what we say? I mean you believe you can see the future..."

I have actually been thinking about the butler since we met him. Don't ask why...😉

"There is no question of me merely 'believing' anything about myself," says Melitus. "The Butler is here to serve me. But your comment that you are sentient if you can make a decision about something that is not programmed into you is also highly questionable. Even in the primitive era the Matrix simulates heurestic computers- that could learn by mistakes and experience- were being developed, but they were far from true AI. Even the chicken has the capacity to learn by experience and you would not rate it sentient in any meaningful sense."

Azrael did rate the chicken sentient, just not very intelligent...

"Well then, I believe the string quartet to be the only non-sentient program."

"That chicken was just a computer programme," says Melitus. "It is no more alive than this table in here, let alone sentient. A chicken* is rather different to a chicken. It was, however, an efficient simulation."

Originally posted by Ushgarak
"Ah, well now," says Melitus, "that depends on what I require from the object concerned. So there was nothing definitive about the Butler that made you think that- merely that you thought it logical that he was an accurate simulation of a human, yes?"

"Very well," says Melitus. "And do any of you think Free Will comes into sentience at all?"

no

could be, but only partial I think

"Very well," says Melitus. "I note, incidentally, that you all missed out the most obvious candidates..."

No

"the string quartet?"

"No," says Melitus. "Each other. Or, at the very least, yourself..."

"We are projections. I would say we are sentient, but I am not sure if this is what you are asking."

true didnt think of that

We are definately sentient.

"Your 'physical' forms here are projections," says Melitus, "but your minds are real. That is what your equipment on your ships does, after all, and why you need to use the hardlines to enter and leave- else your mind becomes seperated from your body and that is not something you can survive..."

"You seem to have all the answers mel......don't ya"

"He has his answers. He could be wrong, but I doubt he would believe us if we told him. However, I do believe him this time, and my statement was to the same effect."

"It so happens," says Melitus, "that the Butler, and indeed none of my staff here, are sentient. For a start, the range of choices available to them is extremely restricted. If they were sentient, for one thing, they would be able to remove their masks..."