Social philosopher, Francis Fukuyama, disagrees with Kurzweil's prediction of "spiritual machines" within a decade or two. He argues that even at merely a secular level our human uniqueness is a complex interrelationship of language, subjective consciousness, moral choice, reason, and broad gamut of emotions. He sees this level of complexity beyond sciences ability to reproduce in a computer...at least for the time being. Further, if it was possible, it would remove any secular arguments in support of human dignity.

 We would be morally indistinguishable from the computer. Would this raise computers to the level of human dignity (as with Mr. Data on Star Trek)? Or, would we simply be reduced to the level of machinery?

Can one scan the soul in order to lock it into a computer database to live out a virtual existence? In like manner can the intellectual, emotional, linguistic and moral complex that make up what we recognize as a human being be reduced to a digital code and uploaded to a computer? Is that person now in the computer? Are there now two people; one in the computer and the other getting up from the scanning table?

I would like to be able to say "no", "no", "no" and "no" to the questions but we are speculating about possibilities that do not exist as yet. Into these possibilities we are trying to fit concepts that emerged from radically different cultures and understandings of nature than those presently revealed by contemporary science.

"Soul" is a mystery that speaks to our unique personhood, our consciousness and a relationship to the Divine. While we may use the same word as the Early Fathers of the Church, the world in which we attempt to understand and use that word is radically different.

We don't have easy answers to the questions with which computer science is beginning to present to us. These questions require deep reflection on our humanity.

We must proceed cautiously.