The cable is out, which means the broadband is out, and of all days to be out, on a Saturday, when I can do my “morning paper” routine of checking email, reading my RSS feeds, and doing a little writing. I read a couple of articles in WIRED in the lates issue, Human Being 2.0, about the movie I, Robot. One of the articles was about Asimov, and th other an interview with Will Smith about his role in the movie. Made me want to see it. Maybe later today.

I was thinking , of course, about the kind of thinking that is inherent in all these discussions (except for the ones who agree with my notion that you just can’t really duplicate the human), which is the idea that there is some way to “create a being”. This is where my philosophy and theology of “life” sets limits. One may be able to “mimic” life behavior, but when push comes to shove, one will end up alone with such a “being”. Thus far, these “artificial beings” can only do what they’re told.

It brings me once again, to the attempts by certain brands of fundamentalism to “codify” everything; and to insist that the Bible (which had better be interpreted with the same set of mental apparatus to which they limit themselves, or risk being banished to the realm of the heretic. This often applies also methodfs and notions of interpretation that are an order of magnitude ABOVE their own mode of thinking.)

Their attempts to “dumb down” life and pigeon-hole it into their “schema” for life is nauseating, and doomed. They send the creatives in their ranks screaming to alternatives, and often these alternatives venture far outside the Church (witness the growing throngs of “recovering fundamentalists”, people who grew up abused and shackled by the fanaticism and poverty of spirit bred by the authoritarian religious groups who seek not converts, but subjects to rule.