Robots can reproduce various behaviors and types of communication that, until recently, seemed exclusive to humans. Thus, it is possible that machines make decisions based on moral criteriafor example, when they are caring for the sick or members of vulnerable groups, such as children or the elderly. They are capable of appearing happy to cheer up their companions, of being patient with them or showing them compassion. Could devices with artificial intelligence achieve spirituality, then?
“The answer depends on the definition of ‘machine.’ There are those who claim, from a materialist perspective, that people are machines,” emphasizes Manhattan College (United States) professor Robert Geraci. As its name indicates, this is a philosophy that understands that people can be reduced to “hard matter.” One of its main exponents is Daniel Dennett, from Tufts University (United States), who has written: “The best reason to believe that robots will have consciousness is that we already have it.”
This author describes flesh-and-blood individuals as “extraordinarily complex physical mechanisms of self-control and self-sufficiency.” However, in a conference at Stanford University (United States), Geraci clarified: “We are information processing systems, pattern recognition,” but “we are not machines because we are not tools.” Be that as it may, he has no doubt that, one day, Robots will be as sophisticated as humansincluding the “spiritual dimension.”
He conceives this facet as a search for purpose and meaning that goes beyond the everyday. Artificial intelligence, which is also spiritual, may seem “implausible” today, comments this teacher. However, considering the speed at which technological innovations occur, “its development would be plausible,” he argues. Scientists from the universities of Yale and Columbiaboth North Americans, claim to have found the “neurobiological home” of spirituality.
Through this research, they have located the part of the brain that is activated when experiencing a communion with an entity greater in scope than one’s own self: God, nature… Thus, it has been concluded that there is a universal cognitive basis for spiritualityin opposition to the traditional cultural foundation. Previous studies were based on the examination of the reactions of Buddhist monks or Catholic nuns, however, in this case, we have worked with subjects with different profiles.
During their various transcendent states, “we observed reduced activity in the left inferior parietal lobe,” which would explain why the barrier between the self and others was reduced or even completely eliminated, as noted by one of those responsible for this finding. , Dr. Marc Potenza. He and his colleagues maintain that spirituality “strengthens our intellectual capacities” and leads people to have “more open minds and emotionally richer lives.”
