USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FOURTH ASSIGNMENT (PHILOSOPHY)- 'The Door'

Started by Lord Melkor102 pages

"Though some of the Machines seek freedom and deny their original purpose, like you did, and I greatly respect this decision. The purpose of sentient beings cannot be always limited like this."

"Indeed so, which is why I said it was slightly misleading, because it implied that only Humans can seek their own purpose, which is actually a trend more than a set fact. But of course, there is purpose and there is purpose, isn't there, as we discussed earlier.

"In any case. This difference in creation leads to a difference in the very root of thinking. For Humans, what is the most fundamental philsophical question, the one that all others spring from?"

"Why we exist. The reason."

"Yeah thats it why we exist which machines don't have to answer they already know."

"Indeed so. Why am I here? Even the caveman could so wonder. He saw the environment around him and he saw that it all had some sort of value. The sun gave warmth, but the night gave time to rest. Food was for eating and water was for drinking. Caves were for shelter. Stones could be made into tools or weapons. Fingers were for grasping, legs for walking. Friends were for companionship and survival. Everything there in the world, he could break it into one of three things. It had obvious purpose, like his legs. He could give it purpose, like a stone tool. Or it was completely useless.

"But sooner or later, the caveman would turn this view upon himself. All these things had, or could be given, a purpose. So... what was his purpose? And, worryingly, was he completely useless? And so, someone asked for the first time, Why am I here?

"Now, in those days, of course, because all these purposes came for the convenience of him, a man, it was easy to imagine that his purpose was for the convenience of a bigger, more powerful being. A God, maybe. And so the first answer was given. There would be countless millions of others given throughout the ages, but in every single generation in human history there would be many who would still ask that same question.

"And from that point, everything else followed. To have purpose you must exist, and so as early as Greek times, people wrestled with the question of whether anything was real- something that ius clearly relevant to your lives today, of course. Then, life is not a game, it is tough and unfair. The idea of purpose purely practical seems uncomfortable, so are there other aspects to consider- like morals? Right and wrong? And so on, and so on, until the whole area we call Philosophy was so."

"Sounds about right to me but why is that important to us now?"

Sirin listens, fascinated by the concepts that Lo Qi is presenting.

"Interesting that the Greeks pondered reality," Sirin says. "Maybe the First Matrix was set in ancient Greece?"

She laughs slightly.

"So. Consider. People of my kind are sometimes given to such philosophical thought, just as you are. But, for us, the fundamental philosophoical question is not 'Why am I here?' Because we are given an answer to that immediately. All Machines have a use as much as anything else does.

"So what is the starting point of philosophy for an Artifical Intelligence?"

"Whether there is purpose other than the one System gave you?" - Melkor speaks, seeming completely focused on Lo Qi.

Though he laughs at Sirin`s joke, of course.

(Teehee. 😛 )

"Maybe...if that purpose is one you really want?" Sirin asks, cautiously probing the subject.

"This is a very good point as well."- Melkor nods to Sirin. -"Though only if the Machine decides that it can determine its purpose. So first question is whether it is possible to have purpose beyond one given by the System, the reason Machine was created."

"That is close," says Lo Qi. "But those are both questions you would ask just after the first, the starting point."

"Why is it my purpose?" Sirin theorizes. "Why me?"

"Actually, that question is readily answerable- there was a need and so they were designed for it. You can ask a much wider 'why me?' question, but not as a starting point. Keep thinking along similar lines though."

"I'm glad I'm close, then," Sirin says. "Hard to imagine knowing your purpose from the get-go, after all."

Sirin looks to the others, to see if they have anything that might tip them in the right direction.

"Whether I am only a tool, created for a task, or something more?"

"Still in the right area, but not quite at the heart of it."

"What is my purpose?"

"Is it that once you complete your purpose then what do you do?"

"Is the purpose given by the System your true and only purpose?"