Its true that it isn’t happened yet that we had a concious robot. A robot that can think. This is its own right a very big discussion, that what it means for a robot to think? And occupied the minds of AI scientists and philosophers.
But lets assume we got a robot which is concious, then the question raises that, How this life will mean anything to him, and further what meaning he will assign to his life and on what basis.
Meaning of life for humans, is a broader philosophical question. It refers to everything which collectively makes our life meaningfull and worth living. Some find that meaning in religions or in social/political movements, some others in science and quest for the truth and fact that we exist.
But what about a robot, since we are not sure that he will have emotions or not, and if he have it then what sort of emotions they will be.
Re: What could be the meaning of life for a robot?
Im not sure what your question is. If it is just that what sort of emotions a robot can have, thats pretty easy. Anything we want to program and whatever scientists define to be an accurate reflection of human emotion (since most scientists try to make intelligence like human intelligence).
So far the emotional models are really really in their infancy, and all implementations are really primitive so we dont really have anything even remotely close to the real thing, and computers dont wonder what the meaning of life is (yet). But it really is no different to think about what meaning life has for a computer than it is to wonder what meaning life has for a character in a storybook.
All emotional computers are fictitious characters, based on one person's view of human minds, and therefore even if the technology was much more advanced than it is now it would just be a scientist's simulated perspective on the functioning of the human mind.
Re: What could be the meaning of life for a robot?
Intelligent agents have their limits.
unless they are designed for free will. and even that will have its limitations, their life is mechanical, still.
i would say our lives are becoming mechanical, we are becoming automatic. and don’t relax, so see the restlessness in our lives, before u contemplate creating more like us... but only artificial machines and then they wont have life cycles like us. birthing process and stuff. no one can feed them, they will need to regenerate their own batteries. they don’t have bleeding and they wont have tears, so on and so forth.
I never understand where they got this brain stuff from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Nation_%28TV_series%29
This is what he referred to- Why cant they NO families, NOT look like humans, and not have those brains etc…where are these ideas etc extracted from?
Itll be spooky if they did exist.
Now look at this for once- WHAT DID THOSE HOW KNEW ALL ROCKET SCIENTIST of 60 years say: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=5469
So when he blamed them, he wasn’t lying was he.
Re: What could be the meaning of life for a robot?
Back in 2001 I thought :
Nature has granted us with limited control over all we possess. I can take my emotions as an example.
Therefore, a man cannot (absolutely) deliver his possessions to a machine as long as he does not have full control over them.
Although, machines will soon be very intelligent, very emotional, with moral judgement etc however, all of that will be fake, or more correctly artificial, and they will remain bags of chips that can be swithced off anytime and in fact life would mean nothing to them.
Today I think:
My old thought was wrong. Nature is an undefined term.
Man can create machine that can manipulate his knowledge in the beginning and at one stage man's assistance will not be required.
Experience based learning will cause doctors, engineers, bankers, armed forces etc to be substituted. Probably scientists too. There will be good machines and there will be bad machines. Both kinds will be more efficient and sharp than mankind.
They will be aware of the importance of their existence and that's why life would mean something to them.
Switching on/off does not matter. Men also die but that does not change the meaning of life to them while they are alive.
Mankind will be in great danger as soon as the machine learns to manufacture more of its kind.
Then what? That's a tough question.
Anyway, at this very moment I'm thinking that does artificial or not artificial really matter?
This may sound silly to many readers but an A.I Researcher reading this (if any) would agree to what I think today.