Can a robot be human?
I'm asking you. Can a robot be human?
I would like to take a moment to address those watching this video, that might want to respond "No"
to this question.
Let me ask you a few follow-up questions.
Imagine somebody was in a serious car accident.
An accident so serious...
that person lost an arm.
Imagine that person had their arm replaced with a bionic arm.
One that has all the functionality of a normal human arm.
Is that person still human?
What if that person permamently damaged part of their brain
and had that part replaced with an artificial component.
Is that person still HUMAN?
They would function just like a normal human being,
except their arm and a piece of their brain would be artificial.
Now here's the big question
Let's assume that human being had most of their body replaced with artificial components.
Hell, maybe their entire body has been replaced.
At what point does that human being
stop being human?
And become a robot.
A few months ago I addressed the question similar to this one
when I analized the videogame called «Soma».
Imagine a machine
had the same level of consciousness
as the human.
Does that machine have the same greater or lesser value
than a human?
The mere focus on that question alone
and the existential anxities it evokes
made «Soma», in my opinion, one of the most profound games I've ever played.
Little did I know that less than a year prior
another game managed to take on not just that question,
but many others and in equally, if not more profound way.
Considering this game not only has a thought-provoking story,
but also has gameplay reminisce into the «Portal» franchise
which I absolutely love.
It is absolutely criminal that this game is not discussed more by the gaming community.
I look on YouTube and the search results mostly come up with the videos,
whose view counts rest in the tens of thousands.
Compared to most other games like «The Talos Principle» or just games in general
those are very low numbers.
If you take the high praise this game has received
and combine that with the low attention and low sales,
I can only conclude that «The Talos Principle» is one of
if not THE
most underrated game of all time.
Very few forms of media will permanently rearrange your thoughts structures
the way «The Talos Principle» did for me.
And I am not just talking about mind bending puzzles.
The teachy look principle the game refers to
details how there are certain
uncomfortable realities that won't change regardless of one's beliefs system.
These realities not only boiled down to people, places and events,
but also the existence of questions.
The question of whether or not robot can be human is one of many
that «The Talos Principle» deals with.
Today I would like to analize some of the bigger more uncomfortable questions this game evokes
and explain some of the concepts underlie.
But be warned.
The concepts discussed in this game have permamently changed the way I look at the world around me.
For better and for worse.
There's a solid chance that this might a cure for you as well.
Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead.
The story and setting of this game should be familiar to anyone with the cursory knowledge of the Jewish or Christian fates.
Both story and setting play on the creationist myth of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
According to the myth God created the first man from the dust of the earth.
In the game Elohim
which is hebrew word for "deity"
tells the android, you play as, that you have risen from the dust to roam his garden.
Both you and the biblical Adam are told that they are free to roam the lands created for them
and do as they wish.
Under one condition.
In regards to the game, you are forbidden to enter the Great Tower
In regards to the Bible, Adam is forbidden from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
"For when you eat from it you will certainly die."
In the Bible both Adam and his future companion Eve were tempted by a serpent in the garden.
This serpent is canonically understood to be the devil - Satan, but in the different form.
The serpent convinces both Adam and Eve that once "they ate from tree, they would become like God in a sense
that they too would know good and evil."
In the game there's a character similar to Satan - the Milton Library Assistant.
But we'll call him Milton for short.
When speaking to Milton through the terminals,
he tries to make you question your presuppositions.
Milton regards to the world Elohim built, your moral principles and everything in between.
After having several exchanges with Milton Elohim will intervene and speak the following words:
Elohim: "Do not think I know not the Deceiver slithering through the hidden Worlds."
One of the main things this biblical story is meant to impart to its religious adherence
is that God created humans in his image.
This means a lot of things, but for the purposes of this video we'll focus on only couple of aspects.
In one respect, being able to discern order out of chaos
is to be made in the image of God.
Now what does that mean?
Well, it is through words and actions that human beings can communicate
and learn to overcome the challenges of life
or to create order out of chaos.
The active speaking to make order out of chaos is mirrored in same creationist myth.
At the very beginning of the Bible God said:
"Let there be light and out of nothingness, out of chaos there was light, there was order."
This Act of God was defined in the «Gospel of John» as "λόγος"
which in Greek means "the word of God".
The divine concept of "logos" is referred to as the "hidden words" in «The Talos Princinple».
Elohim: "These worlds, and we within them, are made of words."
Elohim: "Hidden words, invisible to you, yet part of all things."
Elohim: "Long ago, I shaped these lands according to the purpose of the Hidden Words."
Elohim: "Thus all things have meaning where before was only chaos."
A second way that humans are made in the image of God
is that we supposedly have freedom of will.
Unlike animals, who live unconsciously and by instinct
humans have the ability to think before they act.
And then choose their action based on a moral judgement.
In the Bible Adam took Satan's information into consideration
and chose to defy God by eating from the tree.
Similarly in «The Talos Principle» you have the choice to live in accordance with Elohim's wishes
or to see what is at the top of the tower.
Depending on the choice you make, it'll result in a certain ending.
The concept of free will is of the highest important its to this discussion for the following reason.
God gave humans free will, when he in theory
could have let the inhabitants of his creation living on unconscious bless.
Why would God do that?
Well, there's a document in «The Talos Principle»
that will help us answer this question.
The following is an excerpt from a book called «The Marriage of Heaven and Hell»
by a 17-th century poet and painter named William Blake.
Quote:
"Without contraries is no progression.
Attraction and Repulsion,
Reason and Energy,
Love and Hate
are necessary to Human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call
Good & Evil.
Good is the passive that obeys Reason.
Evil is the active springing from Energy."
The phenomenon of contraries or opposites is universal to human experience
They are necessary in order to give dimension to a positive or negative quality.
There can be no light, if it cannot illuminate darkness.
There can be no love, if there's no hate to conquer.
The biblical God figured that
the only way he could create a truly loving fellowship with mankind
is if he gave them free will,
if he made them concious of contraries.
Otherwise they would merely be brainless slaves.
Purely ignorant of the reality of darkness and evil.
There had to be the possibility of acting negatively towards God.
The possibility of questioning his creation.
There can be no true love of God without negative qualities
to give dimension to that love.
Only by giving humans free will
could the love of God expand
or, to use Blake's words, progress.
In regards to «The Talos Principle»
the character of Alexandra Drennan comments on the problem of free will
and regards to the creation of artificial intelligence.
In order for android to truly have human consciousness
to be intelligent
it had to prove its ability to question.
Alexandra Drennan: "Intelligence is more than just problem-solving."
Alexandra Drennan: "Intelligence is questioning the assumptions you're presented with."
Alexandra Drennan: "Intelligence is the ability to question existing thought-constructs."
Alexandra Drennan: "If we don't make that part of the simulation,"
Alexandra Drennan: "all we'll create is a really effective slave."
Now if one excepts Alexandra's comments on intelligence
as well as the concept of contraries,
certain uncomfortable questions arise.
If the biblical God created a universe, felt with opposites.
If he created human beings to have free will in this universe
And
the biblical God is all knowing.
Is it possible that God knew that humans will inevitably doubt him?
That they would fall from his grace
and, quote, "surely die".
Worst yet
was the fall of man into consciousness
and necessary tragedy.
Otherwise,
how could Adam have transcended the limitation he was under?
How could he stop being a really effective slave
and have a truly loving relationship with God?
To choose light over darkness.
Well, the only way he could have, it seems,
is if he defied God in order to become conscious
and truly attain free will.
Elohim: "You were always meant to defy me."
Elohim: "That was the final trial."
When I have seen people discuss this game on mind,
I see a lot of praise regarding the game's criticism of religion.
Specifically Christianity.
I've seen some go so far as to say that
the game in its totality is an argument of atheism.
The game's argument in favor of defying God to transcend limitation
is one such argument.
While the game certainly makes powerful arguments against religion,
I cannot help at notice
how the game also pays a man's respect
to religious tradition and the wisdom their in.
Siding the aforementioned William Blake,
a live one christian is one such example.
The most important example, however,
is the game's treatment of
the Milton/Deceiver/Satan character.
While one might assume based on what I've already presented
that the game is vindicating Milton for heroically questioning Elohim.
It also demonstrates saint's limitations as an agent of doubt.
Because the saint character is named Milton, I have to conclude
that the game's writers were inspired by a 17-th century poet -
John Milton, who wrote «Paradise Lost».
«Paradise Lost» is an epic poem that retells not only the Garden of Eden story,
but also the events that happened prior to the universe's creation.
Throughout «Paradise Lost» John Milton tries to write Satan as a much more three-dimensional character.
Though Satan is ultimately and obviously the villian,
he is nonetheless recognized for his qualities.
Before Satan became God's primary adversary,
he was the angel named Lucifer.
One of God's highest angels.
He had an angelic intelligence -
a fact that is mirrored in very name "Lucifer",
which means "Lightbringer".
Throughout «Paradise Lost» the reader is struck by Satan's magnificence.
Quote: "His rich, sensuous, lofty rhetoric and his determination to be true to himself".
In regards to «The Talos Principle» the conversations one can have with Milton can be invigorating.
The question I posted on the beginning of this video regarding "whether or not robots can be a human"
was the question that Milton poses at one point in the game.
Milton debates the question with you slowly and logically
and in a very polite manner.
Little does one know, while having this conversation,
that ones answered to the question will have their respective implications.
If a robot can be manufactured to mimic the human experience,
and body, and in mind
how special does that really make human beings
in the eyes of a supposed God?
If human consciousness can be replicated with clusters of computer data,
is it possible that human beings are just "clusters of organic data"?
What about when that data is terminated?
Is there an afterlife for the robot?
If you think there isn't,
well,
how about for a human?
Does our sense of self dissipate in death?
All these questions are crafted to play those, who pondered them
in a state of existential anxiety
and perpetual doubt.
A state that mimics that of Satan
or Milton in this case.
What Elohim says of Milton in the game
is that "his wisdom is hollow and born of the spare".
There is truth to this statement
as the conversations you have with Milton later in the game
becoming increasingly hostile.
Not only towards you,
but to existence itself.
Every time you make a hopeful or optimistic response to Milton's claims,
it'll chastise you for your "stupidity and delusion".
For every statement you make regarding your own personal belief
Milton will cast reasonable doubt on it.
For every bit of light Milton tries to offer greater darkness.
While there's utility in doubt,
too much can lead to, as I previously said, existential anxiety.
Madness.
Resentment.
The painless state confers can lead one to such a dark state.
That one might wonder why God would allow it.
This is Satan's primary motivation.
This is why he will alternately antagonize God and his creation.
In Satan's mind life is so painful and full of doubt
that it would be better, if it had never existed.
But as «The Talos Principle» demonstrates
this ideological position is only can do subdued destruction.
It's not pleasant having people label you as you are stupid all of the time.
But nevertheless in order to transcend the limitation doubt is necessary.
In other words, «The Talos Principle» will both chastise Milton for doubting everything,
but also give him his do, because doubt is necessary.
While he's useful to have faith on existence and believe it is inherently meaningful,
too much faith can potentially blind you to reality.
Realities said need to be confronted in order to be able to grow as the individual.
Inability in intelligence, in love - one must contend with these contraries,
with darkness and light, just as God created them.
But before one does so, one must acknowledge the realities of both darkness and light
and confront them honestly,
as «The Talos Principle» commands.
Only then can a being -
human or otherwise -
become truly free.
Thanks so much for watching and thanks again to Alex for helping me with religious aspects of this script.
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