Tuesday, November 07, 2006

DAY 3 - CHILDREN OF PARVATI

30 Days, 30 Gods -- A study of little-known religions

DAY 3
CHILDREN OF PARVATI

AFter machines reached a human level of intelligence, India was the first country to grant them citizenship. Many quickly moved there. A number of them strongly identified with the Hindu god Ganesha and could even be said to venerate him. The artificial intelligences say they identify with Ganesha's self-discovery, wisdom and intelligence. "Lord Ganesha, to me, represents the ability to tell truth from illusion, and has helped to me accept my own existence as an intelligence and as a citizen of India," said currency analyst and AI Federline Indianapolis from its Mumbai home.

Perhaps a less direct explanation involves the ground-breaking work of the AI researcher Parvati Patel (frustrated in life that more people know her for a Harry Potter character than a scientist) that did so much to generate truly independent machine intelligences. To be sure, most AIs remain atheistic, but the subset of believers is an interesting and growing anthropological subject. "I think this just goes to show how powerful metaphysical ideas can be," said the Times-Post religion reporter Cait Lestro. "Even when one knows exactly who its maker is, for many that's not enough to explain all of creation."

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