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To all the people with a problem with the 3rd question on Soul. The point is, that many religions, and many people, do believe in a soul, or form of dualism, s

To all the people with a problem with the 3rd question on Soul. The point is, that many religions, and many people, do believe in a soul, or form of dualism, some form of immaterial soul. Thus the question is to tease out your stance, to make people think through some of the issues with their own beliefs. Since it is impossible to define a single form of the immaterial soul, since there are a million interpretations, they provided a very generic simple model to base the question. Who cares if it was new information, at the very start they said each question did NOT depend on the others, and would provide information for that question, that applies to that unique and generic hypothetic situation. It would be pointless to have a questionnaire like this, but the first question be "if you don't believe in a soul, don't take the quiz, this isn't a safe space for the scientist." The discussion of soul's and the possible interactions between material and immaterial go back 1000's of years, and not all from the religious. Early scientist spent a lot of time trying to reconcile science and soul, back to early scientist like Newton, Leibniz, Descartes. Even, does a soul have mass, with experiments on weighing a live body and dead body. It is a long standing question, and one that most people do not think is solved, hence still worth asking. So, a lot of people believe in souls, there is hundreds of years of Scientist, Philosophers and Theologians trying to define and reconcile those views. But what? You, in particular, think it is all solved and wrapped up so it is a stupid question? Note. I don't believe in the immaterial soul, but to discount a philosophical survey because it mentions it, is pretty bogus reason to discount that line of thought. These are all very valid questions in the latest craze of AI. I wouldn't doubt that at some point soon, there would be some religious type protest when someone's loved one is 'mimicked' by an AI bot and then the rest of the congregation calls it a demon, or possesedd, or that it has trapped the persons soul.

hn_throwaway_78 3y ago
> You should always base your decisions on nothing more than the desire to keep yourself in existence. Also, each scenario should be taken at face value. The situation will be as described - there are no "tricks" - and you do not need to worry about other 'what ifs'. > Strange as it may seem, it has been discovered that reincarnation of a sort does actually occur. It seems that there is some immaterial part - call it a soul - in all human beings. In the premise of this fictional reality a soul exists; as does reincarnation. It has a 100% success rate to "keep myself in existence" vs. a 30% chance via cryogenics. I was told there would be no tricks, to take each question at face value, and to keep myself in existence. I did so. I was then "tricked" via mid-witted word-play. I'll up the ante, and reduce this problem further: there is no "you." "You" are not in existence. "You" are a collection of atoms in the singular universe (a single entity, where the grouping of its individual parts is a purely subjective matter, and open to interpretation by different pieces of itself). "You" will continue to exist, because "you" are just a collection of energy that is neither created nor destroyed -- simply rearranged. If we take this to the extreme, your choices in this hypothetical philosophical reality do not matter. "You" will always be in "existence." I feel the meme with the bell curve is apt to be used here -- and the author of this tomfoolery is squarely in the middle of it.
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago
  These are hypothetical questions to discuss where peoples beliefs fall. Teleporters also don't exist, but we assume them for the questions. The 'soul' for 're-incarnation' was hypothetically 'discovered'. Given this discovery, how would that change peoples answers. Since many people do believe in souls, it is valid to see how they would answer. The questionnaire isn't just for what you already believe. Guess, Why are you ok with hypothetical teleporters, but not ok with hypothetical soul? Really splitting hairs on the hypothetical questions. Don't you see how your response to the questions makes you see a different framing of others beliefs? There are others in this thread that so believe in souls that they can't fathom the teleporter question and think it is foolish.

hn_throwaway_78 3y ago

> You should always base your decisions on nothing more than the desire to keep yourself in existence. Also, each scenario should be taken at face value. The situation will be as described - there are no "tricks" - and you do not need to worry about other 'what ifs'. > Strange as it may seem, it has been discovered that reincarnation of a sort does actually occur. It seems that there is some immaterial part - call it a soul - in all human beings. In the premise of this fictional reality a soul exists; as does reincarnation. It has a 100% success rate to "keep myself in existence" vs. a 30% chance via cryogenics. I was told there would be no tricks, to take each question at face value, and to keep myself in existence. I did so. I was then "tricked" via mid-witted word-play. I'll up the ante, and reduce this problem further: there is no "you." "You" are not in existence. "You" are a collection of atoms in the singular universe (a single entity, where the grouping of its individual parts is a purely subjective matter, and open to interpretation by different pieces of itself). "You" will continue to exist, because "you" are just a collection of energy that is neither created nor destroyed -- simply rearranged. If we take this to the extreme, your choices in this hypothetical philosophical reality do not matter. "You" will always be in "existence." I feel the meme with the bell curve is apt to be used here -- and the author of this tomfoolery is squarely in the middle of it.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago
These are hypothetical questions to discuss where peoples beliefs fall. Teleporters also don't exist, but we assume them for the questions. The 'soul' for 're-incarnation' was hypothetically 'discovered'. Given this discovery, how would that change peoples answers. Since many people do believe in souls, it is valid to see how they would answer. The questionnaire isn't just for what you already believe. Guess, Why are you ok with hypothetical teleporters, but not ok with hypothetical soul? Really splitting hairs on the hypothetical questions. Don't you see how your response to the questions makes you see a different framing of others beliefs? There are others in this thread that so believe in souls that they can't fathom the teleporter question and think it is foolish.