Posted 28 June 2007 - 01:08 AM
Okay, this is going back to one of my philosophical questions with no answers...
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What is it that defines humanity and human beings?? Is it our perceived sense of soul, or heart? Is it our ability to feel, to care, or hate? Is it the fact that we are homo-sapiens? Is it the fact that our body and mind are one whole being? What defines a human?
What if, for example, a man called Robb were to have a bionic leg? Would Robb still be a human? Sure it still does the same job, does what you tell it to. But, what if Robb had two bionic legs? Carbon fibre bones? plastic heart? Artificial newrons? At what point, do we stop being human? How do we draw the line? What if, Robb had a serious accident, and their whole body had to be replaced, but the mind was intact? Would that person still be human, even though they had a completly robotic body?
Now, go into the future. Many years into the future, where it is possible to, say, grow dolphin fins and live like a dolphin for a week. Where it is possible to access the internet using only the power of your mind, and upload direct video from your eyes. Where it is possible to become fully mechanised. In fact, many people have done so, in order to prolong their lives, or to survive critical injury.
In this future world, there are is also perfect artificial intelligence. Now, what if, there was an artifical intelligence that was brought up like a human? It thinks it is human, for it believes it was seriously injured at a young age. It thinks just like a human too, it has thoughts like us, emotions, too. Now, if you were to put this AI(Artificial intelligence for you idiots) next to Robb, how would you be able to tell which one was human or not? You wouldn't. So, after all this, in the future, will we still be human?
have a god nite 
