The Soul, Artificial Intelligence and Religion
In the major religions there is a belief in a life after death. This afterlife is supposed to take place in heaven, hell or possible somewhere temporary. Also there are different views on how the afterlife arrives – directly in some instances of Islamic belief, during the “Resurrection” in other instances of Islam as well as Christianity and Judaism. Also there is the belief that only the persons soul is in fact the afterlife, although some believe in bodily resurrection as well.
The one thing generally agreed upon through the ages is that there is a body and soul. Duality, the belief that body and soul are separate but are bound together only in life, the soul departing and surviving after bodily death, is fundamental to the belief in an afterlife. Basically, if there is no soul how can there be an afterlife? Duality was believed by the Egyptian Pharos and ancient Chinese cultures. Others say there is no duality and that body and soul are one and indistinguishable. As you would expect there are libraries of books covering the whys and wherefores of the various beliefs in immortal (and mortal) souls.
Immortal souls do not appear in the Old Testament or indeed anywhere in the Bible. The concept of a soul was around in pre-Christian times and was discussed by the Greek philosophers. Only later in Christian theology was the concept of a soul incorporated in to its religion, and probably the same concept was later incorporated in to Islam.
Modern Christian Liberal Theologians (I don’t think there are any Modern Liberal Islamic Theologians) however generally agree that there is no immortal soul, nor indeed a soul at all in its historical concept.
What they believe is that the soul means the none physical aspects of a person – conscious awareness, memory, morality, love, empathy, grief etc., in other words the mind. And of course the mind dies when the body dies – therefore no afterlife. These modern theologians believe that God has no involvement after death and is only interested in life, and that after death there is nothing.
An anonymous survey of Christian clerics found an unusually large number who although teaching life after death, did not themselves believe it, causing them to place themselves “in a real moral bind” 1
With rapid advances in neuroscience, many believe that the mind is controlled by purely chemical, electrical and physical aspects within the brain. Neurological experiments coupled with MRI scanning and ever more complex scientific research show that by altering brain electrical impulses the minds ability to control memory, feelings of love, empathy etc., can be changed and manipulated, thereby bolstering belief in the mind being the result of biological chemical / electrical realities and not controlled by a supernatural soul.
Whilst the advances in neuroscience, as in the fields of medical and biotechnology, have seen spectacular advances in the past fifty years, so today we are seeing rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics.
The interface between the natural basic human, the mixed human (those with transplanted or laboratory grown human organs, foetuses, cloning etc.,), the human & animal mix (those with transplanted or laboratory grown animal organs) and the human technological mix (pacemakers, stents, artificial body parts and joints, brain implants etc.,) are becoming ever more complex. These complexities naturally lead to moral and ethical questions, particularly in the expectation of future advances in their respective fields of research and development.
Generally, religions view is that these advances are beneficial and morally acceptable, provided that various criteria are met, especially in human to human aspects: such as not using aborted embryos (Catholic Church), not selling organs, not forcing death for obtaining organs, ensuring that procedures are carried out for the benefit of the recipient (and without detriment to the donor) and are done for the purpose of love and are commendable as an act of charity, and much more.
Futurists envision a time in the not too distant future, based on the pace of technological and biological research, when humans assimilate technology and robotics in to their bodies to such an extent that they become cyborgs.2
Also in the area of Artificial Intelligence, research and development advances are being made albeit more slowly. Nevertheless, one can envision a future when brain implants take over some of the current brain functions using chemical / electrical conditioning controlled by AI. Further, through greater scientific advances, it is thought that AI will take over functions of memory, thought, social interaction etc., as the aging original brain begins to fail, thereby becoming the mind, which of course is considered the soul by the Modern Christian Liberal Theologians.
If you think this is all a bit too far fetched, the following BBC video shows how current computer data (computer memory) can be stored as physical DNA. It appears that storing human memory in a similar way, may not be such a far fetched idea at all. See DNA - Computer Data.
With these advances humans, in a variety of cyborg form, could happily and productively prolong their lives greatly whilst remaining active both physically and mentally.
For religions and those who still believe in a soul, and body and soul duality, they may say: well there is still enough “human” left for this to be acceptable, and that anyway God is the one driving the evolutionary process through human ingenuity and creativity.
Moving a step further in to a more distant future, suppose that eventually “humans” no longer exist. Meaning that all prior human properties – skin, bones, organs, etc., are replaced by fully working artificial replacements – synthetic skin, artificial or grown organs, and that the brain is now replaced by AI.
My opinion is that the question of the soul will not be an issue, nor even a question, because long before such a scenario exists religion itself will probably be dead and consigned to history as the result of enlightened education.
Charles
1 …..”in a real moral bind”….Philosopher Daniel Dennett, quoted from an interview by James Ferguson of the Financial Times.
2 Cyborg – a human being whose body is in whole, or part, electromechanical devices.
The Egyptian Ba, or the personality part of the soul, hovers over its mummy