spirituality – CHARLES GILLINGHAM

The Stepford Scenario

Three children sitting on a wooden porch step outside a house, with a girl on the left in a green sweater, a boy in the middle in a striped shirt, and a younger boy in an orange shirt reaching towards the camera

could you love a machine the same way you love your children? Consider this thought experiment, which is a variation on the 1972 movie “Stepford Wives”. (This version works better for parents.) If this was a movie, we would expect you to fight to death to get your children back. That’s the only way thisContinue reading “The Stepford Scenario”

The Paradox of Mary and Mark

Young boy and girl smiling, girl wearing smart glasses with cameras

What is “consciousness”? (part 2) This is a variation on Frank Jackson’s thought experiment “Mary’s Room” (1982). This much of the argument should convince you that you believe subjective consciousness is real. There is nothing confusing or mysterious about the concept. You know exactly what I mean when I say “there is a difference betweenContinue reading “The Paradox of Mary and Mark”

Ghosts and Other Invisible Stuff

what do you mean by “consciousness”? (part 1) The characters in Ghost in the Shell struggle to understand their “ghost” — their actual self, the real person beneath all the cybernetic enhancements in their bodies, brains and bloodstream. Major Motoko Kusanagi: Maybe all full-replacement cyborgs like me start wondering this. That perhaps the real meContinue reading “Ghosts and Other Invisible Stuff”