The articles about virtual selves and artificial minds were very interesting. I found it crazy that there was thought about making an artificial "pain-maker" that can detect pain. I don't really understand how it would work, how can a machine learn how to detect pain? I don't think that artificial minds are a good idea. What we call "life" would not be life. Having a virtual life is not a real life, it would be more like a dream where you would always get your way. I don't see why anyone would want to live in a perfect world. That would be a little boring after a while. What would be the point? In this world we learn from our mistakes, and that is what make us better human beings. There would be no sense of accomplishment with anything because you don't have to work for anything.  Some of the greatest inventions were made by mistake. Take the chocolate cookie for example. Ruth Wakefield ran out of baker's chocolate one day while mixing cookie dough, so for a substitute she broke in little chocolate pieces. She thought it would melt but it turns out they stuck! How cool it that! I'm glad she ran out of baker's chocolate because I don't know what this world would be without a chocolate chip cookie! Anyways, back to artificial minds and such, I don't think that any kind of robot can compare to a human. We have our six senses in which a robot can never have. We are filled with emotions and feeling and flaws which is what makes us all different. Humans are the inventors of computer so I don't see why we would make then to run our lives or live lives. Computers are just meant to assist us and make life a little bit more convenient but for them to have a life of their own is a bit extreme.