Animals Are Organic Robots

[Martin Hash]

dasa-robot-genibo-robot-dog-a-large.jpg

I often have the debate with pet lovers whether animals have souls, or whatever? My position is that animals are robots, programmed by some unknown mechanism called instinct, but personalities that can be easily reproduced by a computer program. This is something I can speak with authority, having spent a career writing computer simulations of physical phenomena, but many people reject my expert opinion: they think their dog is "special." Nothing can replace Bootsie.

robot cat.jpg

If you are personally of the opinion that the Turing Challenge, a person thinks the voice on the other end of the phone is real, will soon be accomplished, then how can you not think that a chicken can't be represented by computer now? Certainly cats are easily simulated, and a dog would hardly be a day's more consideration. Even primates aren't much of a problem. That flesh and blood creature you love for its individuality is just a Packard that poops.

Robot Pet.jpg

[Calculus Man]

DNA is just God's software.

[de officiis]

Episodic memory has been defined as memory of personal events and specific episodes in one’s life, and it is thought to be linked to self-awareness [e.g., 3, 4]. Whether non-human animals possess some forms of episodic memory is a controversial topic, and it is difficult to design experimental procedures to assess self-awareness unambiguously. Therefore, this form of memory in non-human animals is referred to as “episodic-like memory.”
...

A fundamental feature of episodic memory is recalling after incidental encoding, which can be assessed if the recall test is unexpected [1]. We used a modified version of the “Do as I Do” method [2], relying on dogs’ ability to imitate human actions, to test whether dogs can rely on episodic memory when recalling others’ actions from the past. Dogs were first trained to imitate human actions on command. Next, they were trained to perform a simple training exercise (lying down), irrespective of the previously demonstrated action. This way, we substituted their expectation to be required to imitate with the expectation to be required to lie down. We then tested whether dogs recalled the demonstrated actions by unexpectedly giving them the command to imitate, instead of lying down. Dogs were tested with a short (1 min) and a long (1 hr) retention interval. They were able to recall the demonstrated actions after both intervals; however, their performance declined more with time compared to conditions in which imitation was expected. These findings show that dogs recall past events as complex as human actions even if they do not expect the memory test, providing evidence for episodic-like memory. Dogs offer an ideal model to study episodic memory in non-human species, and this methodological approach allows investigating memory of complex, context-rich events.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/ful ... 16)31142-3

See also: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/11/ ... -you-think

So, the existence of self-awareness in dogs is worthy of further research.

[skankhunt42]

So are we also organic robots?

[Speaker to Animals]

Of course they have souls. What do you think animates them? Sharks can detect them directly with their sense of electromagnatism.

[Two Man]

My position is that animals are robots, programmed by some unknown mechanism called instinct, but personalities that can be easily reproduced by a computer program.

I would disagree with this sentiment on the basis that animals have emotions almost identical to humans. Dogs, especially, display joy, sadness, shame, jealousy, anxiety, fear and what seems to pass for love. If that is all simply instinct, the same could be said for people. Try programming emotions into a computer. Even if that were possible, it wouldn't be perceived as "real" making it a very different experience than an encounter with a robot. I don't think real emotions could ever pass a Turing Test and I certainly wouldn't want them to. If people have souls (I'm not saying that they do) then animals do.

[DrYouth]

Hashy might be an organic robot...

An organic robot with no respect for fur babies. [need my snicker emoji]

[Two Man]

Hashy might be an organic robot...

Well he has claimed in the past that he has no morals which are a human construct so....

[DrYouth]

facepalm

[Martin Hash]

I have a hell of a time discussing this topic in the wild. OMG, folks go apeshit when I insinuate that little Feefee is replaceable, or that farm animals are anything more than food. I like my dog, but I like my iPhone too. I'll ask you guys, which would cause the most concern in your life if it was gone?