When does someone stop being a human and become a robot?
Hi guys,
Great title, don’t you think? This phrase could be applied to many facets of life but now I’d like to talk about man and technologies and how this combination might eventually evolve.
At the moment, I’m working on a new series, working title Invasion. It’s set in the future where medicine has gone a long way compared to the technologies of today. And as I worked on the book, I stumbled over this question. When does someone stop being a human and become a robot?
Let’s take modern medicine, for instance. We’ve learned to transplant human skin, the heart and other organs and body parts. Do we still consider such patients human? Absolutely. They’re identical to us.
Now let’s go one step further. These days, you can’t surprise anyone with bionic sensory prosthetics. If a person has a mechanical limb installed which mimics all the functions of the one they lost, do we consider them human? Of course. Their mental capacity - their “soul”, if you wish - is still there. It’s still part of them.
But! What if one day our technologies allow us to graft a human head onto some mechanism? Only a head, without a body? Will we still call such a creature human or will it be something else entirely?
Let’s take yet another step and implant a robot with a human brain. Only a brain, nothing else. Will it make them a robot or a human being? Their consciousness is intact; all their thoughts and desires are still there.
At this point a lot of people, me included, might declare point blank: this isn’t a human being. Anything but.
So my question is, can you pinpoint the exact moment when this exchange happens? Will such a creature be considered human as long as it contains certain organic components? Or should it preserve a certain percentage of its human body?
If you look at movies and literature, Dan Brown’s Origin does exactly that, describing a symbiotic relationship between man and technology. Still, it didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. Then there’s Transcendence with Johnny Depp who has his consciousness uploaded into a computer. Does it make him human or a machine? Once again, the film doesn’t offer a clear-cut answer.
Which is why I’m asking you: at which point does someone stop being human, if at all? What do you think?
Great title, don’t you think? This phrase could be applied to many facets of life but now I’d like to talk about man and technologies and how this combination might eventually evolve.
At the moment, I’m working on a new series, working title Invasion. It’s set in the future where medicine has gone a long way compared to the technologies of today. And as I worked on the book, I stumbled over this question. When does someone stop being a human and become a robot?
Let’s take modern medicine, for instance. We’ve learned to transplant human skin, the heart and other organs and body parts. Do we still consider such patients human? Absolutely. They’re identical to us.
Now let’s go one step further. These days, you can’t surprise anyone with bionic sensory prosthetics. If a person has a mechanical limb installed which mimics all the functions of the one they lost, do we consider them human? Of course. Their mental capacity - their “soul”, if you wish - is still there. It’s still part of them.
But! What if one day our technologies allow us to graft a human head onto some mechanism? Only a head, without a body? Will we still call such a creature human or will it be something else entirely?
Let’s take yet another step and implant a robot with a human brain. Only a brain, nothing else. Will it make them a robot or a human being? Their consciousness is intact; all their thoughts and desires are still there.
At this point a lot of people, me included, might declare point blank: this isn’t a human being. Anything but.
So my question is, can you pinpoint the exact moment when this exchange happens? Will such a creature be considered human as long as it contains certain organic components? Or should it preserve a certain percentage of its human body?
If you look at movies and literature, Dan Brown’s Origin does exactly that, describing a symbiotic relationship between man and technology. Still, it didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. Then there’s Transcendence with Johnny Depp who has his consciousness uploaded into a computer. Does it make him human or a machine? Once again, the film doesn’t offer a clear-cut answer.
Which is why I’m asking you: at which point does someone stop being human, if at all? What do you think?
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