Q: Machines are wholly material, so how can they possess life?
A: You are wholly material and yet we say you possess life.
Q: I am not wholly material! I have a soul or a spirit, which purely material things do not.
A: What is this soul of yours? Show it to me!
Q: We cannot adequately describe much of our behaviour and experience in words; this is evidence of a spirit, or a soul that dwells within the body. Our scientific categories are not sufficient to deal with such spiritual truths, so I cannot show it to you as such.
A: We cannot adequately describe much of a computer's behaviour and experience in words. There are an infinite number of variables operating whenever we use a machine, so there is always unpredictability, and therefore "spirit" as you say.
Q: How can you say that? It is my experience that machines are totally predictable: it is this predictability that makes them different from us.
A: Can you predict with certainty whether your car will start in the morning?
Q: No, but machines always have definite causes for what they do. If a car fails to start in the morning, the engine may need new spark plugs.
A: All things have definite causes, though we may not be able to determine precisely what those causes are. Can you be certain that the problem with the car is worn spark plugs? If you replace the spark plugs and the car starts, can you be sure you have fixed the problem? You see, all things are the same, whether human or machine, in their inherent unpredictability.
Q: The difference between machines and humans is that in the case of machines there are only a limited number of possible reasons for failure. The problem with the car will be found in either the electrical system, or the fuel system.
A: Things have infinite causes because of the interconnectedness of all things. There are however a finite number of categories of causes, though each contain an infinite number of causes. The electrical and fuel systems are two such categories. A further category might be called "extraordinary causes," which would cover the possibility that aliens are directing a disabling beam at your car from outer space.
Similarly, if a human being is faulty, the cause must lie within a limited number of categories of causes. For example, a cause must be either physical, mental or spiritual.