Rather than use animals or Neanderthals to make my point about the separateness of the soul and the brain, let's examine Star Trek's android - Data. As you may know from watching Star Trek's - The Next Generation - the android, named Data, has superhuman strength and intelligence, but lacks the human attribute of emotion. Data is an advanced computer that can interact with humans and perform extraordinary tasks, but is constantly confused by human emotions such as fear, love, anger, jealousy, and grief.
From a technical standpoint Data would have the senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, and touching, The sense of taste would be closely linked to smell, in that he might have the equivalent of a mass spectrometer that can define elements and through computer interpretation discern the nature of a substance. The capability of seeing might include three dimensional video camera observations of his surroundings that are interpreted as graphically rendered objects. Seeing could also be enhanced to include x-ray vision. With further refinement, the material nature of objects could be identified. Hearing would be in the form of vibrating air molecules, and with further refinement the directionality of sounds could be discerned. Data's body could also include miniature mechanical nano-sensors that would provide the sensation of touch.
Occasionally Data plays poker with some of the crew members. At one point Data throws his cards in when one of the crew members bluffs Data into thinking that the crew member had a winning hand. This confuses Data since the bluff appears to be irrational. When the bluff is explained to Data, he is able to incorporate the play into future poker games. I find this interesting since I have been fascinated by playing scrabble on my computer. The computer not only has access to the entire dictionary, but it also has the capability of employing strategy. While playing the game, I have the feeling that I am playing with another human. However, because the computer has a distinct advantage, I need to select a level of play that suits my competence level. In other words the computer scales back its capabilities to allow me to compete. My question is not whether the computer can beat me at the game, but rather is the computer capable of inventing a game that humans would enjoy? Furthermore, why would it invent a game in the first place? I can't imagine that Data derives enjoyment from playing poker, since he is incapable of the feeling of enjoyment. And, without understanding the feeling of enjoyment, how could it design a game with human enjoyment as the objective.
So while watching Data in his role on Star Trek, consider that he is an extraordinary machine, and not a human. There is no amount of computer programming that will produce original thoughts or human emotions. Could it be that original thought and human emotions come from the soul?
In one Star trek episode Data discovers that his inventor had made another android named Lar, but Lar has an emotion chip. Having human emotions, superhuman strength, and a superhuman brain, Lar decides to eliminate the inferior human species and create others like himself. This is a problem that some people fear today as android invention evolves. However, this fear is ill founded, since it's inconceivable that any inventor could ever produce an emotion microchip. And, without human emotions, that contain evil thoughts, androids would not have a desire to overthrow humans.
The android could be programmed to act based upon a decision tree that endlessly mimics human behavior, but it would not be acting based upon human type emotional feelings. This is an important concept and one worth remembering; and here's why. If you think that androids can be developed with an ability to have emotions and a free will, you would need to mathematically define esoteric terms like love, hate, ambition, self awareness, jealousy, greed, grief, happiness, joy, sadness, curiosity, embarrassment, desire, appreciation, compassion, altruism, fear, enjoyment, intuition, and the emotions of crying, blushing, sulking, and laughter. You would also need to define the process of original thought and reasoned logic. Because these attributes cannot be defined mathematically, they cannot be programmed. If they cannot be programmed, then what are they? Where do they come from? How can they evolve? If human type emotions are merely a form of programmed neuron connections, why can't humans develop the same programming in today's androids?
There's more -- stay tuned.
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