interesting thought: what about video games? an AI can be built to respond to various stimuli that we would associate with sorry, happiness, cruelty, etc. what makes the camel different to a complex AI?

and for those who don't believe in a soul: what makes us humans different from it? has our conscience simply evolved from "i don't want that happening to me, so i won't do it to others"?

i'm not presuming that you make cruel video games; off the top of my head i don't know what games you've made or worked on. but most games are cruel, aren't they? what are the limits of "cruelty", if it isn't just something people can do?

julz

EDIT: two things:
1. sorry for the double-post, but so many things have happened since i went to bed last night, and my response to AlbertoT is very different to my responses to Tiles, Dooley and Lukas.

2. i know this isn't exactly on the original topic, but is it safe to say that the entire topic has derailed consistently enough and mutually enough that it is on-topic in a different way?