Robot Priests

Douglas Adams beat you to it Pete in a Dirk Gently novel. Although his horse steals the show.

 

Reminds me of my favorite dystopian film THX1138. It's roughly based upon a society ran by machines to control the human population & emotion therein. Then of course in the same vein is Logan's Run'

 

Maybe we should have robot politicians. They won't be driven by personal ambition, ideological fanaticism (including the religious kind) or partisan hatred - the desire to punish or silence those who don't share their views.

Frankly what people pray about in church and what or who they think they're praying to doesn't affect or concern me. What politicians spout and what they claim to be doing in my name (and with my money), does.

 

The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

Unfortunately this Electric Monk had developed a fault, and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random. It was even beginning to believe things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City. It had never heard of Salt Lake City, of course. Nor had it ever heard of a quingigillion, which was roughly the number of miles between this valley and the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams

The book is superb. I heartily recommend it and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

 

Not relevant to the thread but I like it.

"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn’t work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn’t really any point in being there".
Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams

 

will a robot priest maintain confidentiality in a confessional stylie?

 

until it's hacked...

I thought of Douglas Adams there too.

 

I bet it won't go down to the local pub and drink five pints a night like the vicar at my church. The pub would close down with out him and his services wouldn't be as comical if he was sober!

 

Or a conscience or fear of being ousted from power....Terminator rises

 

With all that data going into a cloud somewhere....being monitored...what’s your best guess

 

With all that data going into a cloud somewhere....being monitored...what’s your best guess

 

aye, but isn't that the whole point of a priest? to send yer wishes and concerns up into the clouds where the big man lives?

 

Depends if that big man then sends in the Stasi to make sure penance is paid

 

How would a robot priest with Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics reconcile those with protecting a human from harm? Mental as well as physical.

 

dont think we have to worry about the stazi. she's busy in Florence.

 

Think you may find a much bigger risk to freedom isnt that leader, but the one in red

 

You should relax. All letters are kept secret, and nothing is revealed until December 25th.

 

At least it won't sexually abuse the choir boys. Does it double up as a vending machine or anything useful?

 

Depends who programmed them