In Which Jung prewrites AtD's epigraph

[Joseph Tracy]

 seems like it's  about definition. Machines usually refer to mechanical tools that extend biological function.  I agree that we are already convergent with these tools and perhaps as a species inseparable from our tools. But are we sentient machines or are we machines at all? Are we the universes tool for self awareness? Or perhaps the machinery of some more local demigod ?Whose machine is the universe  and does it have a purpose? The thing about a tool or machine is it has an intended function and purpose for which it was designed. Do people? Life forms feed themselves, fill a niche in an ecosystem, goof around/play/learn/teach, reproduce, and die.  Machines  don't feed themselves, play, learn,reproduce or introduce slight variations in genetic patterns. They don't exactly die either. 


On Mar 16, 2012, at 1:24 PM, Jude Bloom wrote:

> Why do we suppose that humans and machines will be different entities? Don't all the arrows seem to be pointing to a convergence?
> 
> Unless you're a kind of dualist, there are already sentient machines, that is, us.  ??
> 
> 
> On Mar 16, 2012, at 12:14 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> Still, as Pynchon's thoughts seem to imply, the real question for humans is when we can manufacture machines to do everything  human's used to do, then what will human's do? I guess fight over who programs the machines and where to get the energy without killing everything.  Always something fun to look forward to.  
>>