Word: sentient
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...years AI researchers have tossed around the question of whether computers might be sentient. But since they often did so in casual late-night conversations, and sometimes in an altered state of consciousness, their speculations weren't hailed as major contributions to Western thought. However, as computers keep evolving, more philosophers are taking the issue of computer consciousness seriously. And some of them--such as Chalmers, a professor of philosophy at the University of California at Santa Cruz--are using it to argue that consciousness is a deeper puzzle than many philosophers have realized...
...after a mere six months in the wilderness, if that's a fair description of schmoozing it up with the likes of Bill Gates and John Malone. Diller was now preaching the new religion of interactivity--though, to give credit where credit is due, so was virtually every other sentient being in telecommunications in 1992. Owning a traditional broadcast network, Diller told the New Yorker with a cavalier, would-be mogul's flair, "would be fun. But even as I say it, I bore myself...
Weighed against these threatening factors is the uplifting picture of the universe that the ubiquity of life and consciousness implies. A cosmos that starts out in a sterile Big Bang and gradually progresses through complex chemistry to life, intelligence and culture--and sentient beings who can look back and reflect on the meaning of it all--is profoundly inspiring. The fact that this advance can take place entirely naturally, without divine intervention, adds to the wonder...
...that's neither here nor there. The point I'd like to make is that my hours and hours of "O.J. time" were richly rewarded. Forget ER and Murder One. For anyone sentient, the trial was the most compelling show on television. In fact--this may sound odd given that the Simpson saga will probably go down in history as the signal TV event of the 20th century, outstripping even the Kennedy assassination, the first moon walk and any number of very special episodes of Silver Spoons--I think the trial ultimately transcended television. As testimony dragged...
...some point in what may be the 21st century. The city's inhabitants are a grotesque stew of humans; robots; human-robot-animal crosses; living protoplasmic blobs whose flesh, capable of regeneration, has the effect of drugs when sliced off and eaten; and deadly beings that seem to be sentient holograms...