论强人工生命的可能性

On the Possibility of Strong Artificial Life

强人工生命认为,我们在自然环境或计算机的虚拟环境中创造的展示生命特征的人工实体可以成为真正活的生命,因为不管我们怎样定义生命,这样的定义必然会把这样的人工实体包括在内。强人工生命的反对者主要从物质和形式的关系、虚拟生命缺乏生物学意义上的新陈代谢、功能主义的理论基础的经验性、"鞋子/苍蝇"谬论等四个方面否定强人工生命的可能性。本文则对这几个反对理由进行分析,认为这些理由不足以穷尽强人工生命的可能性。

According to strong artificial life,the artificial entities we create in computer or in natural world can be real life.For no matter how we define life,such a definition must include these artificial processes or entities.Opponents of strong artificial life negate the possibility of strong artificial life mainly through four ways:virtual organism only has form,but real life is the unity of form and matter;virtual organism lacks of metabolism in the sense of biology;the foundation of functionalism is empirical,i.e.not all properties can be multiple realizable;functionalism is also easy to commit'Shoe/Fly Fallacy'.I analyze these critics and believe that these arguments do not completely exclude the possibility of strong artificial life.Artificial life might be real life.