*homepages for controversy*

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I was hoping somebody would. I would love to hear everyone's different view on "what is life" "what is consciousness" ect ect.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Yeah, that's what I was looking for myself. I personally think it may be considered 'alive' at the point you're speaking of, but conscious as soon as it reaches the intelligence, of, well, whatever the least intelligent creature we consider conscious right now is, I suppose.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Just so you (and other people) know. If this flames up I'm staying out of it. I've already had a very in depth discussion about this today and would much rather watch. So I'm going to sleep and hoping I have something great to read tomorrow morning while eating my waffles.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I would just leave the definitions to scientists (no pun intended). I'd prefer an objective definition in this case rather than a subjective one.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Adding on to this, are the engineers/scientists that actually made the robots of equal status to Gods? Do they have the power to decide which of these robots lives or dies? Not only that, would it be ethically right to force these robots to a life of war or generally any inhuman conditions? Dammit I love this post.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

This reminds me of a movie and I just cannot for the life of me figure out what movie it is. It's not Wall-E...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

A.I. AstroBoy Bicentennial Man I, Robot The Iron Giant Short Circut Any of those? They're the ones that come to mind.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

SHORT CIRCUIT. Thank you.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I Robot was my first thought as well.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

or the correct name the modified caves of steel

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Even though he wasn't a robot, this reminds me of Frankenstein's monster. He realized on his own that he was the only one of his kind and demanded a partner that would be like him.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

What about plants, though? They're alive but didn't consciously decide to reproduce.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I was actually thinking about this the other day. What if plants are also conscious but in a different way. ...like instead of through their brain it would be through their cell membranes. I'm no scientist so I'm probably way off, but it is a thought.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I would define life in robots as the ability to reason. Even then, I would not give them equal status to humans, or even animals. The reason we have animal cruelty is that they have a negative chemical reaction in the brain in response to damage (feel pain). A rebot might register that it's being destroyed, and may take action against it, but if it does not actually feel the pain (not just the impact, but register it as pain) then it is not being cruel to the robot. To put it on equal status with humans, it must have full sapience. Not just more variables it can respond to, but the ability to learn and create new variables, and in addition to that, it must have emotions. Not just the ability to respond to certain scenarios, but, for example, the feeling that it should do something to prevent the destruction of another one of its kind, even if it would have no effect on it.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Machinery will always be programmed, it can't just have free will on its own...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Life is a very difficult thing to pinpoint. It's a very abstract thought, and people always go around acting as if they known what they're talking about. I love this post though, it definitely pushes the view of life into perspective, it's really making my brain buzz right now.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I don't think I agree. I feel like although consciousness does play a key role in someone or something being alive, It is not the deciding factor. I recently read a book which I foolishly forgotten the name of. It doesn't matter though because it was a terrible book. The plot was that there was a girl who lost her memory and was told she was in a car accident. It turns out that she is a robot, and only 10% of the human's brain was part of the robot. Throughout the whole book, the author just assumes that the reader feels like the robot thing is human, but I just don't think so. I don't know, maybe I'll come back to this post and explain some more because I am really bad at multitasking.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I found Bender on Amirite!!

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Yeah that's gonna happen one of these days. Controversial bullshit. As of right now to be alive you need to have a fucking pulse and a functioning brain that's so complicated we haven't even understood how they work exactly. Gonna be reshaping the definition of alive when such a thing as a machine that makes its own decision without no program or human control which is gonna happen when pigs fly, we can hear colors and people stop being fucking idiots.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Plants don't have a brain or a pulse.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Nor does any kingdom aside from the animal kingdom.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

People with synthesia hear colors.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Aren't there a set of guidelines every living thing fits into like having cells, homeostasis, reproduction, etc? Viruses "reproduce" but aren't living. This is a great post, the idea gave me chills.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Movement, respiration, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition (take in and use food). I remember it from early high school - MRS. GREN. I don't think it's a check list to see if something is living or not but more so things that all living organisms have in common.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm pretty sure all living things need to have cells. Could be wrong though.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I thought that was the list you were thinking of. What you're talking about is cell theory.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Or just see if it understands humor. Number Five is alive! The idea that a machine could, without being programmed to, realize it is one of a kind and begin to manufacture others like it, is pretty scary to me. The idea that a machine can learn to do ANYTHING on its own without a human programming it, is kind of scary.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I know you didn't exactly say that you find that interesting, but Robopocalypse is a good read. Although it sounds cheesy and lame, it's not.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

by Anonymous 11 years ago

But a machine can't do anything on its own without a human programming it...

by Anonymous 11 years ago

When the robot feels the need to reproduce, it doesn't matter if it's alive or not. What matters is that it chose to do something on it's own, and for a logical reason. At that point, my main concern wouldn't be giving it a social security number, it would be shutting that thing the hell down before it realizes it can do much more than reproduce and takes over Skynet. Have none of you seen Terminator?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

i'll love for the last two sentences

by Anonymous 11 years ago