The Chinese Room argument .....

I read a little of Searle's works and from what I read he thought it may be possible some day once we figure out "wetware"...

Artificial Intelligence is a complex field that challenges our current integrated understanding of everything to it's core.

As humans, we argue about free-will vs. determinism.
So, there's always the free-will side to explain why we make choices.
With AI, machines are created by determinism.

Additionally, as humans, we argue about the existence of a soul.
Why would AI ever suffer from a notion of self-sacrifice? There's no self in a machine. Even when we program a self into AI (computer gaming), it's still just a program mimicking basic survival instincts that was written by a programmer.
So, with AI, no soul; no self.

Humans argue about whether we have a creator or not.
AI has a clear creator(s).

So, basic realities of AI at any level along the technological advancement:
Deterministic selfless servants.

We can program and build a great many things, but it won't ever be more than a sum of it's parts.

Real question is, are we?
Most say yes, so, if yes, than why?
What is the technology behind these concepts we argue about: Free will, the soul, existence of a god?

I asked Mr Turtle but he said talk to Mr Owl.

If you get a computer (hopefully a Mac...) and input a command that says "sum 5+7", the computer will make the command unless some other command such as a virus forces it to do it.

a human, however, if told to make his/her bed, will think about it and choose whether or not to do it. Making us (partly) free. Yet I see no reason why a metal mind wouldn't be able to function as a biological mind. After all, the brain is just a messy bunch of connections and even more "potential" connections. A computer, similarly, uses up space in it's HD to store knowledge, decision-processes and such, and also has a large space for "potential" knowledge.

As an example: We may think of ourselves as free because we can decide if we will or will not use a sweater, but in reality we just receive a signal regarding temperature and decide according to that, so in practice our so called "freedom" is just an incredibly complex net of cause-effect decisions. And any cause-effect decision can be emulated by a computer.

If you come to think of it, almost all people born in a muslim country with an islamic family end up being muslims. (And so with other religions) When this is not true it is because ther "causes" were present whih changed our minds and caused as an "effect" our religious doubt.

PD1: Sorry for the length
PD2: Sorry for any stupid things which might have slipped in the text
PD3: Religion is a common argument of discussion, thus I used it as an example.

Contradictions are welcome =)