Greetings everyone,
As we know, AI research is currently on going. If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma? Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
Metta
AI: What is a sentient being?
AI: What is a sentient being?
Last edited by Ceisiwr on Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .bodh.htmlJust as, with an assemblage of parts,
The word 'chariot' is used,
So, when the aggregates are present,
There's the convention 'a being.'
Cleared. αδόξαστος.
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Citta, perhaps,
Or, intention....
Hard to say really...
Or, intention....
Hard to say really...
The world is swept away. It does not endure...
The world is without shelter, without protector...
The world is without ownership. One has to pass on, leaving everything behind...
The world is insufficient, insatiable, a slave to craving.
The world is without shelter, without protector...
The world is without ownership. One has to pass on, leaving everything behind...
The world is insufficient, insatiable, a slave to craving.
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Where is the above Mahayana term found in Pali? Does the Pali have the term 'vedayatīti-sañjānātīti-satta'?
sentient
/ˈsɛntɪənt,ˈsɛnʃ(ə)nt/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
able to perceive or feel things.
"she had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms"
There is always an official executioner. If you try to take his place, It is like trying to be a master carpenter and cutting wood. If you try to cut wood like a master carpenter, you will only hurt your hand.
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/paticcasamuppada
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/anapanasati
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/paticcasamuppada
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/anapanasati
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
I would say "yes" if they have the perception and feelings.Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm Greetings everyone,
As we know, AI research is currently on going. If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma? Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements to be classed as a sentient being?
Metta
They also have kamma and rebirth as they were born spontaneously.
Buddhism acknowledges.
There is a strong possibility that many of us will be reborn in a lab in the future!
Even though they were created in a lab they were the beings passed away from another reality.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Never ai will be sentinel being. The lack of consciousness, as AI is pure material. It is a car, a house, a computer, it lacks awareness.Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm Greetings everyone,
As we know, AI research is currently on going. If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma? Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
Metta
Maybe a soul (loose meaning) can possess a machine if the interface is appropriate, bc afterall, human body is just a machine. But that doesnt mean a sentinent is being created. Consciousness can not be created by mere material
Please stop following me
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Based on digha nikaya 23 its a soul. Mic drop.Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm Greetings everyone,
As we know, AI research is currently on going. If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma? Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
Metta
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Please quote the relevant passage. Thanks
There is always an official executioner. If you try to take his place, It is like trying to be a master carpenter and cutting wood. If you try to cut wood like a master carpenter, you will only hurt your hand.
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/paticcasamuppada
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/anapanasati
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/paticcasamuppada
https://soundcloud.com/doodoot/anapanasati
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Depending on how good the designers of the AI get at mimicking biological brains, they could potentially design a non-mind that is all vitarka and no vicāra as an intermediary stage before designing a mechanical human being.
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Sentient being is just a label, so it doesn't really matter it could be applied to AI or not. So depending on how far/advanced AI is in terms of "self-awareness", guess there's nothing wrong with calling them non-organic/non-carbon-based partially-sentient beings, as in contrast to organic/carbon-based sentient beings.Ceisiwr wrote:If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma?
Pali dict. wrote:Satta: 'living being'.
This term, just like attā, puggala, jīva, and all the other terms denoting 'ego-entity', is to be considered as a merely conventional term (vohāra-vacana), not possessing any reality-value.
For the impersonality of all existence. s. anattā, paramattha, puggala, jīva, paticcasamuppāda.
Now we're talking about the Orthodox view, which only recognizes the 6 main realms of existence, and their 31 planes, so AI is un-charted territory. Anyway, depending on how advanced AI is with its "self-awarness", ie. is it behavior still being fully controlled and programmable by its human designer? or it's self-awared enough to make a conscious choice between good or evil actions all by itself? If it's the former, then whatever it does, good or evil, the kamma still falls on its human designer (since he programmed it to do such things); but if it's the latter, then itself will bear the kammic consequence, for afterall, kamma is one's own conscious volitional actions.Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth?
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
This issue was discussed on DW fairly recently (a couple of months ago?) and Dhammanando (if I remember correctly) pointed out that it was, as you suggest, a Mahayana formulation which was not found in Theravada sources.DooDoot wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:57 pmWhere is the above Mahayana term found in Pali? Does the Pali have the term 'vedayatīti-sañjānātīti-satta'?
sentient
/ˈsɛntɪənt,ˈsɛnʃ(ə)nt/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
able to perceive or feel things.
"she had been instructed from birth in the equality of all sentient life forms"
So we don't need to worry about it and the OP might get a better response on DWM.
I wasn't going to worry about it anyway, since it's all hypothetical and I have enough real questions to keep me busy.
Kim
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
It's a good thought experiment, in my opinion. It's similar (if not identical) to the Philosophical Zombie debate in philosophy.Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:42 pm As we know, AI research is currently on going. If, one day, AI becomes a reality would said intelligence be classed as a sentient being in the Dhamma? Also, for orthodox views, would it also be subject to kamma and rebirth? What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Kim OHara
Metta
Ah, that’s interesting. Still, change it to “being” or “living being” and my question is still the same. How would AI be viewed in the Dhamma? I’m asking this to the wider audience of course, since you aren’t interested.This issue was discussed on DW fairly recently (a couple of months ago?) and Dhammanando (if I remember correctly) pointed out that it was, as you suggest, a Mahayana formulation which was not found in Theravada sources.
Perhaps a perfection of wisdom?it was, as you suggest, a Mahayana formulation which was not found in Theravada sources.
Metta
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
Only if the entity were to be animated by the mental continuum of a just-deceased saṃsāric being. Otherwise it would be merely matter without consciousness (aviññāṇaka rūpa), like a rock or a plant, no matter how impressive the tricks it's been programmed to do. ("For lack of a gandhabba / HAL's no more sentient than rubber," as William Wordsworth might say).
By definition it would have to be subject to them to count as a "saṃsāric being" (a more descriptively accurate translation of satta than "sentient being").
The entity must be heir to a past saṃsāric continuum in which ignorance and craving were not extinguished.What are the bare requirements needed to be classed as a sentient being?
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
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Re: AI: What is a sentient being?
I agree with this. And these thought experiments, like the philosophical zombie not having consciousness, refute the complete materialism / physicalism position, imo.Dhammanando wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 3:03 am Only if the entity were to be animated by the mental continuum of a just-deceased saṃsāric being. Otherwise it would be merely matter without consciousness (aviññāṇaka rūpa), like a rock or a plant, no matter how impressive the tricks it's been programmed to do. ("For lack of a gandhabba / HAL's no more sentient than rubber," as William Wordsworth might say).