29 APRIL 2000, Page 25

PC Gremlins

From Mr Herbert Thornton Sir: Frank Johnson (I'm a soul man', 15 April) doubts that a machine equipped with artificial intelligence can possess a soul. I should have thought there might be a theo- logical basis for the idea that any suitably Complex arrangement, whether of cells or microcircuits, can either give rise to a soul or, if the soul comes from somewhere else, Provide it with a place of sojourn. I don't know about souls, but I have noticed that personal computers sometimes act so perversely that it seems highly plaus- ible that they have become possessed by evil spirits.

H.M. Thornton

curmudgeon@pacificcoast.net