“The neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy, the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans. But there is no evidence that its functioning is due to anything more than the 10(14) neural connections that build an elegant architecture of consciousness.” HumansBrainConsciousnessWonderfulEvidenceConnectionsMachinesBusyDuesArchitectureElegant Author:Carl Sagan
“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.” HumansLittlesEnjoyAnimalConsciousnessMoralDoubtCenturyPositionCreaturesArgumentTraditionMachinesSpeciesFolksExtremesVersionsDefinedDecentNo DoubtHuman HistoryHomo SapiensContinuumUnfeelingMistreat Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness.” ThinkingMenKindWishConsciousnessEternalMachinesMiserable Book:My Philosophical Development Source: My Philosophical Development
“We are not the only avatars of humanity. Once our computing machines achieved self-consciousness, they became part of this design.” SelfHumanityConsciousnessDesignMachinesRobotsSelf ConsciousnessComputing Book:Endymion Source: Endymion
“The machine not only does it relieve us mechanically of a crushing weight of physical and mental labor; but by the miraculous enhancing of our senses, through its powers of enlargement, penetration and exact measurement, it constantly increases the scope and clarity of our perceptions. It fulfills the dream of all living creatures by satisfying our instinctive craving for the maximum of consciousness with a minimum of effort! Having embarked upon so profitable a path, how can Mankind fail to pursue it?” DoeDreamEffortConsciousnessPathFailingMankindCreaturesPerceptionLaborMachinesWeightIncreaseSensesPursueClarityCrushSatisfyingMinimumScopeCravingMiraculousMaximumProfitableMeasurementLiving CreaturesPenetrationEnlargement Author:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“Scientists who have dedicated their lives to building machines that think, feel that it's only a matter of time before some form of consciousness is captured in the laboratory.” ThinkingFeelsMatterFormConsciousnessBuildingMachinesScientistDedicatedLaboratoryCapturedMatter Of Time Book:Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century Source: Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century
“If human beings are losing every time, it doesn't matter whether they're losing to a conscious machine or an completely non conscious machine, they still lost. The singularity is about the quality of decision-making, which is not consciousness at all.” IfsHumansStillsMatterLostHuman BeingsDecisionConsciousnessQualityLosingConsciousMachinesDecision MakingSingularity Author:Stuart J. Russell
“When I'm on the operating table, I'm happy for the surgeon to treat me as a machine, but the moment I return to consciousness I have other needs and aspirations that should be recognized. We're not here only to survive or extend our individual or species life but to do something seemingly more difficult, for which I've used words and phrases like 'love' and the 'Kingdom of God'.” NeedsShouldMomentsUsedIndividualDifficultConsciousnessReturnMachinesTreatsTablesSpeciesKingdomsPhrasesAspirationKingdom Of GodSurgeonsLike Love Author:George Pattison
“In fact, the machine doesn't have the consciousness we have, the free will that we have, and to surrender one's free will, not in every matter but in spiritual matters, to a spiritual teacher is in a sense a lower level of surrendering one's will to God.” MatterFactsSpiritualLevelsConsciousnessTeacherMachinesSurrenderFree WillSpiritual Teachers Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“Consciousness, unprovable by scientific standards, is forever, then, the impossible phantom in the predictable biologic machine, and your every thought a genuine supernatural event. Your every thought is a ghost, dancing.” ConsciousnessForeverImpossibleEventsStandardsConsciousMachinesDancingGenuineGhostPredictablePhantoms Author:Alan Moore
“If your washing machine stops working and you're addicted to appliances that work, you'll get upset and you will suffer. If you prefer that your appliances work well, then when your washing machine breaks down you won't compound the problem by superimposing your uncomfortable emotions on the situation.” IfsWellsProblemSufferingEmotionConsciousnessSituationBreakMachinesUpsetUncomfortableBreaking DownWashingCompoundsHigher ConsciousnessAppliancesWashing Machines Author:Ken Keyes Jr.
“Meditation simply means a discipline that makes you capable of being aloof and detached from your mind. So even if the mind is sick, your consciousness is never sick. Even if your mind is going crazy, you are just witnessing it. Mind is only a machine. You are not. Meditation is the experience: "I am not my body, not my mind - I am the witness of it all." This experience, this transcendental experience, immensely transforms the whole situation. Many things which were driving you crazy simply drop away.” IfsMindMeanWholeBodyConsciousnessSituationMeditationCrazyDisciplineCapableMachinesSickDrivingWitnessDetachedTranscendentalAloofGoing Crazy Author:Rajneesh
“Meditation means undoing what the society has done to you. It has reduced you to a machine; you have to de-automatise yourself, you have to become a man again. You have to come out of this state of unconsciousness, of mechanicalness. You have to come out of this sleep. It is possible only through meditation. There is no other way, there has never been, there will never be. The only way to reduce a man to a machine is take away his consciousness force him to function unconsciously. And just the opposite is the way of meditation: give him back his consciousness.” MenWayGivingMeanStatesDoneForceSleepConsciousnessMeditationMachinesOppositesFunctionUnconsciousnessUndoing Author:Rajneesh