I thought that they worked essentially the same way as a Cuttlefish's colour-change abilities: Electro-reactive red, blue and green pigments whose size is controlled by changes in the current through a micro-weave electrical mesh just beneath the top layer of the derma.I remember a while back an experimental material woven from conductive fibres and coated with a unique liquid crystal coating. The zones would switch from light to dark depending on current flow IIRC and show the core pigmentation when dark. Didn't require any power to maintain still images. It was supposed to be a low power low labour replacement of commercial printed banners but flat screens dropped in cost so quickly they killed this tech in it's infancy.
I thought that they worked essentially the same way as a Cuttlefish's colour-change abilities: Electro-reactive red, blue and green pigments whose size is controlled by changes in the current through a micro-weave electrical mesh just beneath the top layer of the derma.So why is newly grown robot hair affected?
I thought that they worked essentially the same way as a Cuttlefish's colour-change abilities: Electro-reactive red, blue and green pigments whose size is controlled by changes in the current through a micro-weave electrical mesh just beneath the top layer of the derma.
So why is newly grown robot hair affected?
I'm imagining something similar to an E-Ink display.
...mental connections and psychosexual associations it elicits.
If anything, "robotically" connoting unthinking repetition of mundane tasks would be more problematic than the word's etymological roots.Oh yes, definitely. Also, I wonder who sued who first over discriminatory “are you a robot” checks on websites…?
Except that these are inseparable from each other. Personality is just an amalgamation of the processes performed by all the various interacting bits of our bodies. In a very real sense, we are our bodies, although mostly the parts we can't see.
The characters of Questionable Content are not robots, the same way that I am not a human. But we call ourselves human, because our human bodies are tangible, while our personalities, which are closer to who we are, are intangible.
Except that these are inseparable from each other. Personality is just an amalgamation of the processes performed by all the various interacting bits of our bodies. In a very real sense, we are our bodies, although mostly the parts we can't see.Personality, the person's essential phenomenal pattern, may emerge from such processes, but is not merely an amalgam thereof. Certain instances of certain personalities may be inseparable from their embodiment, but excepting those defined enthralled, the personality is. Of course existence in this reality requires embodiment, but that does not prevent separation from a body. For example into another body. If your body fits you so well that none other can suffice, you have my envy, and my pity.
Whether or not my body is acceptable to me is irrelevant. It is what it is. There is no personality separate from embodiment. We are bodies. Alter the body, you alter the personality.I agree and disagree. It is true that the body has a major and unalterable effect on the personality, but humans are brains. We're brains using complicated electrical signals and feedback loops to power a mech made of meat. The meat suit protects us and feeds the brain, and the chemicals it sends to our brains affect how we act, but it isn't itself a direct part of our personalities.
Consciousness is non-transferable. Theoretically one could generate a new consciousness very similar to another, but it would not be the same one.
The "self" is an illusion.
Those chemical processes are part of the whole, and brain is part of the body.I think we're arguing about different points. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but it seems like you're saying that the brain isn't complete without the body. I agree with that; they're codependent. The body needs the brain's control to move and live, and the brain needs the body's supplies to work properly. I was only trying to get at the fact that the root of consciousness is in the brain.
Whether or not my body is acceptable to me is irrelevant. It is what it is. There is no personality separate from embodiment. We are bodies. Alter the body, you alter the personality.I don't think Dock Braun was referencing the acceptability of your body, but the fact that there is no other body that could possibly fit you. Also, being essentially thralled to the whim of arbitrary chemical processes would be a perfect hell for me. There are plenty changes to my body that don't entail changes to my personality. It may be that my personality would need an embodiment to even exist---that seems to be in the nature of this our universe---but that doesn't mean the same personality cannot be embodied otherwise.
Consciousness is non-transferable. Theoretically one could generate a new consciousness very similar to another, but it would not be the same one.Personality and consciousness are not identical. Also, I would be very interested in knowing what methods you used to conclude that consciousness cannot move to another embodiment.
The "self" is an illusion.All of mathematics, any work of fiction, physics, your thoughts or perceptions---all illusions; doesn't mean they're not real.
Those chemical processes are part of the whole, and brain is part of the body.The idea of being part of something is illusory, too. I could extend my definition of self to include all the things I own, or even things I don't own, or the persons with whom I interact. By your reasoning, I could well define myself so that my personality depends on the financial state of a corporation I partially own. The personality is one thing that a person has nigh-total control of.
I think a problem here is we're using crude language discussing subtle concepts.“I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another where the best fruit is.” --Terry Pratchett
Those chemical processes are part of the whole, and brain is part of the body."Mind is a function of brain," as I've heard it put.
The personality arises from the gestalt of all the physiological processes currently going on in the body. At most you could replicate those processes somehow in another body, but even if you somehow managed to transfer all of the data stored in the brain along with it, it still wouldn't be the same personality, just a copy.I am interested in learning more about this conception of personality. I'm not convinced that it requires that inseparability quality. (I suspect that this thread is not the most appropriate place for a discussion of these topics. Perhaps somewhere in RELATE or DISCUSS?)
It wouldn't be the same personality. At most it would be one very much like it. The personality arises from the gestalt of all the physiological processes currently going on in the body. At most you could replicate those processes somehow in another body, but even if you somehow managed to transfer all of the data stored in the brain along with it, it still wouldn't be the same personality, just a copy. And an imperfect one at that as they would immediate begin to diverge from one another.One's experiences and disposition also play rather major roles in the development of one's personality.
Okay, next question: this comic. (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4300)In the previous strip Roko says "I have a call today with some people at Munroe Robotics." So it's clear that this is not a physical-presence meeting.
Based on the background (and the hologram Roko holds up in 4301), it looks like a virtual environment, right? Where would they be if it weren't? But Landon seems definitively human, unless that's an incredibly realistic AI body. Also, Roko comes back into the office a few comics later, as if she's just returned from a meeting. If it were virtual, what would have stopped her from simply using the interface at her desk?
I guess it's possible that they're all using external VR sets with full-body video tracking. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.
I wonder if any of the artificial muscles in QC work like this?Interesting but requires way too much support infrastructure.
EDIT: I mean more in the general sense of 'compressed gas contracts and expands the muscle fibres. Probably something decidedly less flammable than pure hydrogen.
Just think what you could do with the right software and sensor suite linked with servo motors on each of the circular seals of an atmospheric hardsuit.
AI Hair, and perhaps by extension their dermal coverings, could easily be self-assembled in a nanoparticle bath.Recall that May's (old body's) hair was however simply sewn on. So it's probably one of those things that varies widely by manufacturer and model.
A physical bath seems to be the order of the day for hair - see the Momo hair escapade.
Short version; humans own the chassis of a given companion AIIs that true? We know AIs are legally allowed to have possessions and money, so it's perfectly reasonable that they own their chassis. Often, a human buying a body for their companion AI is a gift, implying that ownership goes to the AI. It seems like it could cause many problems if humans could just rip their friends out of their bodies and sell them for scrap.
Do the fighting ring participants identify as AI?
Jeph said once that AIs are the legal owners of their bodies, but people like the former nuclear missile sub must be exceptions.When you're in the military, the military owns your little pink (or whatever color) body. Why would it be different for an AI?
AI have more options than humans, though. If they decide that keeping their chassis in working order is becoming too expensive, they can decide to (maybe temporarily) move to a non-embodied existence. Millie mentioned that most of the AIs in her creche never chose a chassis, instead they just run as software constructs.
Also, I wonder if places that sells chassis offer maintenance contracts. "Buy one body, get 5 years of service". Just for the basic stuff, like lubrication, and replacement of parts due to regular wear and tear.
AI have more options than humans, though. If they decide that keeping their chassis in working order is becoming too expensive, they can decide to (maybe temporarily) move to a non-embodied existence.