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#1
01-31-2006, 02:29 AM
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Henrietta and Harry
Im sure you philosophy beatniks have heard this before. Hypothetical: Harry looks like a human. In fact, he is similar to the Terminator (other than weighing 1 ton, looking like Ahnold, or talking about the end of times.) He acts like a normal human, knows slang, etc. But he is a machine. He has advanced AI, can "think" for himself. Is harry a person? He is most definitely not human.
Henrietta is a 25 year old woman. In the year 2520 (or whenever), there are vast medical advances. She gets her organs, limbs, everything replaced with machine parts similar to today's hip replacement, except on a larger scale. Everything is changed except her brain. Eventually she gets her neurons in her brain replaced one by one. she now is, in fact, the same thing as Harry. Who is a person? At what point did Henrietta change to a non person, if at all? This is all hypothetical of course, but it was brought up in class today and I would like to be able to bring a new opinion to the table on Wednesday. 
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#3
02-01-2006, 01:51 PM
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Re: Henrietta and Harry
Who is human?
there have not been any religious answers yet... so here goes. A soul makes us human. It is the spark of life that we are infused with when we are born. Self awareness of ourselves or our soul is NOT enough to test human/non human-ness. (otherwise Data would be human and an infant or mental retard would not be) When that soul leaves our body (permanently), then we cease to become human. (for those who have clinically died for a few minutes) Our bodies are just shells that house this soul, and I believe that from the R point of view, we can replace Every single body part so that no original DNA remains and you could still have a human with the same soul. just my 2c.
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#4
02-01-2006, 08:24 PM
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Re: Henrietta and Harry
In my opinion, a thing is "human" just in case it can reproduce with other "humans," with some exceptions.
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#5
01-31-2006, 12:18 PM
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Re: Henrietta and Harry
did they remove her soul too?
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#8
01-31-2006, 01:06 PM
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Re: Henrietta and Harry
i'd say as long as they have purpose they're all persons
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#9
01-31-2006, 01:28 PM
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Re: Henrietta and Harry
[ QUOTE ]
Henrietta is a 25 year old woman. In the year 2520 (or whenever), there are vast medical advances. She gets her organs, limbs, everything replaced with machine parts similar to today's hip replacement, except on a larger scale. Everything is changed except her brain. Eventually she gets her neurons in her brain replaced one by one. she now is, in fact, the same thing as Harry. [/ QUOTE ] I'd like to have that procedure at some point in the future.
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