Artificial Beings

As noted previously (in §02.00.01; see also particularly §03.00.02), Things (perhaps) can but certainly will not process information: they do not have the will to do so. A knife, a thermometer, a car or a ship, regardless of the degree of its sophistication, has no will of its own to process information; it does not need to do so. Even if a Thing does process information, it does so following its design, its purpose being given to it by those who created it. However, in human history, a new intermediate category emerged: humans (relatively) quickly created, not just purpose-specific Things (artefacts, but a different kind of Thing, one which can process information but for no specific purpose—or, for any purpose whatsoever. These purpose-agnostic Things became crucial to the information processing of humans.

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