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Subject:Re: What we may become... From:Stuart Reynolds <stuartr -at- FIRSTGRAPHICS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 19 Jul 1995 20:58:20 -0700
>DALAI LAMA: In terms of the actual substance of which computers are
>made, are they simply metal, plastic, circuits, and so forth?
>VARELA: Yes, but this again brings up the idea of the pattern, not the
>substance but the pattern.
>DALAI LAMA: It is very difficult to say that it's not a living being,
>that it doesn't have cognition, even from the Buddhist point of view.
>We maintain that there are certain types of births in which a
>preceding continuum of consciousness is the basis. The consciousness
>doesn't actually arise from the matter, but a continuum of consciousness
>might conceivably come into it.......
......
>ROSCH: So if there's a great yogi who is dying and he is standing
>in front of the best computer there is, could he project his
>subtle consciousness into the computer?
>DALAI LAMA: If the physical basis of the computer acquires the
>potential or the ability to serve as a basis for a continuum of
>consciousness. I feel this question about computers will be resolved
>only by time. We just have to wait and see until it actually happens.
All I can say in this case is "god help us when Bill dies!!" ;)
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