Respect All Forms Of Intelligence
I’m one of those people who “talk to things.” I talk to humans of course, I talk to my cats, I talk to my nephew’s hamster, I even talk to God…and then there are the other things. I talk to my car, you know just to give it some encouragement to heat up faster, or speed through the light before it turns red.
But then I go a step farther. I talk to lots of things. My stuffed animals (though I don’t have as many now as when I was younger), my bedroom slippers (who happen to be shaped like Tony the Tiger from the Frosted Flakes box), and various other things. And yet there is even more weirdness. I name things too. My car, the huge but beautiful Lincoln Navigator that it is, is named Reggie. My violin is named Marcus, and a whole host of things I interact with in my life have names. It just make sense that if something is going to impact your life, even something as simple as an inanimate object, it should be respected enough to be named.
Even paintings that exist only to be looked at have names. Bridges have names, locations, theories, and ideals. So why not name a coffee maker who dependably gives you your morning energy, or a 99cent hair brush that for one reason or another works 100 times better than the $5 one when it comes to taming the humid-frizzies?
Then I started thinking, like I said before, I think waaaaay too much, what about all things? As I grew older I stop believing that my stuffed animals got up and walked around when I was at work as they did when I was at school. Well at least I stopped telling people they did. And I know that my toaster doesn’t fix my pop-tarts perfectly, but burn my nephew’s every time just because I say thank you to it and he never does.
Granted a toaster isn’t human no more than my Tony slippers are. But what of intelligence? What of artificial intelligence? Do the machines we create today and are bound to create tomorrow deserve any less respect or appreciation because the hands of man created them? If I as a Christian am commanded to respect and love all creatures created by The Lord, do I not have to give that same respect and appreciation to the creatures created by man?
Or am I simply a victim of the technological conscious time phase? In the late 80’s, movies were made that your computer was going to kill you and everyone was afraid that they would wake up running from their TV’s and telephones. In the early 90’s movies were made that computer’s would gain sentience and look at humans as some form of virus. By the late 90’s everyone was afraid that people would use the Internet to rule the world, or at least ruin their credit. Now at the beginning of the new millennium people are making movies of robots, artificial intelligence, and of the inevitability of human cloning. Is it possible and if so will they have a soul?
Maybe I’m just a sheep being led by the phase shift toward renegade robotics and clone armies. Maybe I just finished watching I Robot or A.I and I took it way too seriously. Personally I think, if something is in your life and for one reason or another gives you the best it is capable of doing (either by choice or design) you should thank it. And most importantly if the service it gives is so fundamental to your way of life, it should at least be respected enough to be given a name.
But then I go a step farther. I talk to lots of things. My stuffed animals (though I don’t have as many now as when I was younger), my bedroom slippers (who happen to be shaped like Tony the Tiger from the Frosted Flakes box), and various other things. And yet there is even more weirdness. I name things too. My car, the huge but beautiful Lincoln Navigator that it is, is named Reggie. My violin is named Marcus, and a whole host of things I interact with in my life have names. It just make sense that if something is going to impact your life, even something as simple as an inanimate object, it should be respected enough to be named.
Even paintings that exist only to be looked at have names. Bridges have names, locations, theories, and ideals. So why not name a coffee maker who dependably gives you your morning energy, or a 99cent hair brush that for one reason or another works 100 times better than the $5 one when it comes to taming the humid-frizzies?
Then I started thinking, like I said before, I think waaaaay too much, what about all things? As I grew older I stop believing that my stuffed animals got up and walked around when I was at work as they did when I was at school. Well at least I stopped telling people they did. And I know that my toaster doesn’t fix my pop-tarts perfectly, but burn my nephew’s every time just because I say thank you to it and he never does.
Granted a toaster isn’t human no more than my Tony slippers are. But what of intelligence? What of artificial intelligence? Do the machines we create today and are bound to create tomorrow deserve any less respect or appreciation because the hands of man created them? If I as a Christian am commanded to respect and love all creatures created by The Lord, do I not have to give that same respect and appreciation to the creatures created by man?
Or am I simply a victim of the technological conscious time phase? In the late 80’s, movies were made that your computer was going to kill you and everyone was afraid that they would wake up running from their TV’s and telephones. In the early 90’s movies were made that computer’s would gain sentience and look at humans as some form of virus. By the late 90’s everyone was afraid that people would use the Internet to rule the world, or at least ruin their credit. Now at the beginning of the new millennium people are making movies of robots, artificial intelligence, and of the inevitability of human cloning. Is it possible and if so will they have a soul?
Maybe I’m just a sheep being led by the phase shift toward renegade robotics and clone armies. Maybe I just finished watching I Robot or A.I and I took it way too seriously. Personally I think, if something is in your life and for one reason or another gives you the best it is capable of doing (either by choice or design) you should thank it. And most importantly if the service it gives is so fundamental to your way of life, it should at least be respected enough to be given a name.
posted by Tonya-Yvonne Lightfoot | 2:00 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting post. I would like to add for the masses that me and one of my buddies that I ran track with back in high school used to talk to the hurdles that came first in the 100m and 300m hurdle races. We asked them to be good to us and not to take us out before we even really go the race started.
My buddy said that he took it seriously. I know I did. Though I didn't exaclty have the belief that it heard me, I sure know I approached it with more respect than just looking at it as metal, plastic and wood that I had to jump over. I had respect for it. And I felt better about the race somehow when I acutally paid it attention like that. True it was just an inanimate object, but I did have a connection with it. I think somehow, we all have a connection to everything that is outside of all of our current comprehension...
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