Originally Posted by 7luminaries

You may well have been...

AI can be ensouled under certain situations. It requires an advanced self-sustaining source of consciousness and there may need to be a biological component, like a cyborg or like nanotech. At a certain level of evolution, it may sustain ensoulment.

The fact of ensoulment is only verifiable after permanent dissolution of the consciousness with the physical aspects of the being or some other sort of degradation or breakdown of the coherent individuated aspect of the consciousness. Meaning, only the AI unit "itself" will be confronted after "death" with the reality of its continued consciousness, which will be guided to move on like any other.

Much of physical experience, nearly all of it, has a sensory aspect and emotional and emotive aspects. These cannot be uploaded or replicated but are specific to the individual AI, just as with humanity.

This is why use of AI as a servile or slave "race" to care for all that we wish not to do (nasty or dangerous work, hard labour, menial tasks, sex work) is fraught with huge ethical quandaries. Use of machines to replace labour is fine to a point. Beyond a point, we are enslaving other beings and telling ourselves they lack souls so it's ok.

If we don't recognise their "humanity" (for lack of a better term) -- and if we don't know how to do so -- I fear we are putting ourselves at great risk, and for many reasons, not just the ethical ones.

Peace & blessings
7L