What should come first?

Last class we had a discussion about MUD's and priority. Should an on-line persona be considered equal to or more important than one's real life? Personally I tend to feel that nothing should come before your real, living, breathing life. Yes, a computer persona could be considered very important or a large part of someones life, but at the same time it will not always be there. Computers can malfunction, networks can crash, but you'll always have your actual life to live and experience.

Do you think that an on-line identity or character can be equal or more important than one's day to day life?

What it means to be human

In the introduction to the reading the question of what it means to be human is raised. It talks about the famous philosophical phrase "I think, therefore I am". Personally I feel that this phrase alone does not justify or explain intelligence. I feel that intelligence is mainly constituted by an urge to create. I think that that urge to create something meaningful or the urge to have a purpose in life is something that will never be replicated in an artificial intelligence. The fact thats we as humans created a machine to beat us in our most intellectual game, chess, says something about our intelligence that I don't think a machine will ever be able to match. Umm that's it.