Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!pai
From: pai@yale.edu (A. Satish Pai)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Islam and AI, genetic engg., etc.
Message-ID: <4552@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 90 10:44:43 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Reply-To: pai@yale.edu
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven CT 06520
Lines: 43
Approved: naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah)



A few questions from a curious person:

1. What is the Islamic view of "consciousness", "intelligence", and "life"?
   Specifically, are these things properties that can be endowed only by
   God (Allah)?
2. What is the Islamic view of genetic engineering? Of genetically engineered
   bacteria or other microbes that have been "created" or "invented" in recent
   times? What about the possibility that living matter may be created from
   non-living matter some day by science? What would the status of such 
   life be in the Islamic viewpoint?
3. Carrying this a step further, what about the possibility of human clones
   created by artificial means?
4. What is the Islamic view of the field of artificial intelligence? Of the 
   assumption (often made in AI) that given sufficient computing power, and
   with the use of appropriate programming techniques, intelligence of any 
   kind (including human) can be duplicated in a computer program? 
5. Supposing a computer program were developed that exhibited human-like
   features to a large extent (intelligence, maybe even emotion), what would
   be its status under Islamic philosophy?
6. (A wild one) Supposing life on some other planet is discovered, with 
   intelligence and development comparable to that of the human race. What
   would the status of such creatures be under Islam? Could we have the 
   possibility of one of these creatures becoming a Muslim, in any sense?
   Does this question make any sense at all?

I know that the terms "intelligence", "consciousness" etc. are very
vague. Even the term "life" may not have a precise definition.
However, I think that even so the above questions are clear enough -
my meaning ought to come across.

No flames about the absurdity of this posting, please, I'd really like 
to know the answers. 

--Satish.
--
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Internet: pai@cs.yale.edu                              | A. Satish Pai
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