Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
Can a Robot Pray?
The Lord's prayer is the model of prayer given to Christians by
Jesus, and seems perfectly acceptable to robots, although “give us
this day our daily bread” might have to be replaced by “give us our
regular electric feed”. Essentially, a robot should be able to have a
relationship with almighty God, to be dependant upon God, and
to seek His will. Thus just as a robot can be in relationship with
humans, I see no reason why a robot should not form a relationship
with God. Indeed if the robot views humans as rather frail in com-
parison to himself, there may be great merit in the robot relating to
a being superior to himself. Thus it should be possible for robots
to meditate, to worship God, and to intercede for His needs, the
needs of robots, and the needs of the whole world.
Would Robots Go to Church?
Although it is possible that the robot might choose to be an anony-
mous Christian, it is likely that he will want to celebrate together
with other Christians. But robots might find human Church ser-
vices rather slow and boring. A robot might not necessarily appre-
ciate hymns, for example, and the human congregation would not
appreciate the creed being said 1,000 times faster by the robot.
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So, it is possible that there might be specialised churches for ro-
bots where together they can have their own services. On the other
hand it is possible that robot services could be conducted over the
Internet.
Would Robots Receive the Holy Eucharist?
The problem here is whether robots would necessarily have the ap-
paratus for eating and drinking. It can be argued that eating and
drinking is fundamental to the human condition, and therefore if
a robot is to adequately relate to humans it will have to be designed
to also eat and drink. If that is the case, then a practising Chris-
tian robot would naturally receive the Eucharist. However, if it
could not eat, then other forms of the sacrament would have to be
devised, perhaps an oiling of the head?
Could a Robot Be Ordained to the Priesthood?
From the foregoing you can see that I see no objection to the or-
dination of robots. There are a number of arguments that might
be made against this. First, that Christ was a man, and therefore
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This speed is not necessary. Speech synthesis software can speak at almost any desired number
of words per minute.
