Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by willmarch 50 days ago
What evidence is there for humans having souls to support your "wisest default"? What would constitute "strong proof otherwise" in the case of machines?

Wouldn't the wise position be that since there is no evidence of souls at all that the default should be that both humans and machines do not contain a soul until proven otherwise?
1 comments
jrm4 50 days ago
Not to me. The wise position starts from "Humans are mysterious, but I am one and I see that others are like me, so I think we have souls." along with "I get what a machine is from first principles and based on all I know, they don't feel."

I get that this isn't as rigorous as one might like, but I think in the real world it's wise.

link