At What Point Would Our Cyborg-Selves Cease To Be Human?
9:20AM November 14, 2009 | Sean Fallon
Yes, it’s the RobotCop question. How much of your body would you have to replace with machines before you could no longer be considered human? Let’s break it down into percentages.
Would a disembodied brain be considered human? If so then I don’t see a difference in how much machinery you hook up to it. But then, what if you start upgrading the brain itself, what is the limit then?
I’m not really happy with any option, i think that as long as your consciousness (memories personality emotions) is maintain even running on a computer even with no tissue remaining
I say 50% to give leeway for incapacitation such as losing limbs, artificial heart implants or pace makers etc. I do believe however, major augmentation or modification of the body’s core features for deliberate ‘improvement’ is inhuman… I guess It’s just too close to ‘CyberMen’ and their justification for removing all that is human, It’s just my opinion…
What of cybernetic mind enhancements? Memory filters and aggregators, sensory enhancement, techno-telepathy, mental-computational offloading? At what point will we no longer be the master of the ever improving enhancements but their slaves?
To answer that question, you must first fully define exactly WHAT makes us human? Our personalities? ideas? abilities? limitations? intelligence?
Or is being human more about how we look and function, how many limbs we have, or what shape our bones are?
From amputees with missing limbs to Chernobyl victims with extra ones, we still define them all as ‘human’. So to some extent for sure, your body can change or be modified outside the model of a stereotypical human.
But at the same time you’d hardly call a machine with AI a human.
From the opposite side of the scale, what if you started with a robot and slowly replaced its mechanical limbs with human, flesh-and-blood limbs?
I think it would be interesting if you did another poll and asked instead ‘How much of a robot would you have to replace with living tissue before you could call it human?’
Grant
November 14, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Would a disembodied brain be considered human? If so then I don’t see a difference in how much machinery you hook up to it. But then, what if you start upgrading the brain itself, what is the limit then?
Report Permalinkandrew
November 14, 2009 at 8:42 PM
I’m not really happy with any option, i think that as long as your consciousness (memories personality emotions) is maintain even running on a computer even with no tissue remaining
Report PermalinkCharles
November 15, 2009 at 8:52 AM
If you’ll excuse the misquote: “I think I’m human, therefore I am”.
Report PermalinkJoshua
November 15, 2009 at 4:51 PM
I say 50% to give leeway for incapacitation such as losing limbs, artificial heart implants or pace makers etc. I do believe however, major augmentation or modification of the body’s core features for deliberate ‘improvement’ is inhuman… I guess It’s just too close to ‘CyberMen’ and their justification for removing all that is human, It’s just my opinion…
Report Permalinktandy
November 16, 2009 at 12:51 PM
What of cybernetic mind enhancements? Memory filters and aggregators, sensory enhancement, techno-telepathy, mental-computational offloading? At what point will we no longer be the master of the ever improving enhancements but their slaves?
Report PermalinkMike Anthony
November 16, 2009 at 1:09 PM
To answer that question, you must first fully define exactly WHAT makes us human? Our personalities? ideas? abilities? limitations? intelligence?
Or is being human more about how we look and function, how many limbs we have, or what shape our bones are?
From amputees with missing limbs to Chernobyl victims with extra ones, we still define them all as ‘human’. So to some extent for sure, your body can change or be modified outside the model of a stereotypical human.
But at the same time you’d hardly call a machine with AI a human.
From the opposite side of the scale, what if you started with a robot and slowly replaced its mechanical limbs with human, flesh-and-blood limbs?
Report PermalinkI think it would be interesting if you did another poll and asked instead ‘How much of a robot would you have to replace with living tissue before you could call it human?’