What is your definition of a person? What are the qualities/features needed for someone/something to be a person? Can an animal ever be classed as a person? For example with a cyborg, how much of them needs to be replaced with machine before they are no longer a person, if ever? I did this in Philosophy and wondered what you guys thought about it.
As far as cyborgs go, I think you should speak of "person" in case the brain is intact. It is after all the brain that governs emotions and is responsible for most of our actions.
Well being human is distinctively different then being a person. Being a person involves emotions, being able to think and make decisions based on those thoughts, and to feel emotions based on situations (i.e. terror, pity, sadness). A person would also be able to discern right from wrong, or their version of it, have morals, and maybe a conscience. Being human is being a mammal, having hair, and surviving by eating and drinking food and water. Walking on two legs, commonly, and having two hands, with five fingers and toes on each ligament. Homo sapien, pretty much a breed of animal, is one of the most common creatures on earth. Scientific answers ftw. The difference between a cyborg and a person, is that a cyborg is told what to do. They cannot define between killing an innocent child, or killing a target, because they do what they are told to do. They have no morals, and no emotions. They don't dream, or have an emotional side of their brain.
Not necessarily. A cyborg is essentially any human who is part organic and part machine. If you have a prosthetic arm, a prosthetic lung and an artificial liver so to speak, then you are a cyborg even though your brain and all its functions (including emotions) are intact. In short: cyborg =/= Terminator.
I believe that the definition of a "person" needs to include more than just the biological. There are plenty of "people" on life support machines who are brain dead. I would not consider such an individual a person, they aren't there anymore whether or not their body is alive. A person is a consciousness, and there may come a time when that definition allows for people to be independent of bodies.
Spoiler A MISERABLE PILE OF SECRETS! i hate these threads, the person who makes the thread is obviously trying way to hard to be philosophical a human to me is basically who can convey emotions both verbally and mentally being able to get knocked up with each other works fine too
I guess the thought of a person boils down to phrase: "I think therefore I am." I guess a person is a being who is always able to have control of themself along with free will...I guess... I really THINK I have no clue.
Well, humans are set apart from most other organisms because of our ability to think in more complex ways. We've developed to a point at which we can look beyond our primal instincts, and question what right and wrong are. Most other living creatures tend to lack such capabilities, though it's hard to actually know what animals think of.
I class anything with emotions, will power and intelligence as a being with the same rights as a person. Thats kind of the same thing right?
First of all I differentiate between a "Person" and a "human being." To me, a "Person" is a non-physical capacity or representation of a human being. An example would be your drivers license or social security number. Are these factual parts of your body and existence? No, but they represent your legal entity and both of these things allow you to make decisions and transactions within the world's legal society (or system). This perspective is an on-the-books one, where once you've been giving a birth certificate, a dual-you has been created. It's fairly complicated and to be honest, it is rather conspiratorial... but I think that's what makes it fun. But to be more relevant to what everyone else is talking about, a person can also just be a physical being such as you and me. To me being a person in this sense is doing anything that I am capable of doing. Nothing too philosophically complicated about it. Then again I choose not to be too complicated about my existence. Don't wanna go insane. lol
Concerning my personal opinion, a person has a higher level of thinking, encompassing concepts of morality and why one does things. This is sort of a loose idea and it needs work before I can argue for it. As for the point I can defend, persons can deliberately perform actions that are detrimental to their survival or reproductive value with no foreseeable benefit to them in the future. It is rare that animals will do this. Even actions that do not seem to benefit them immediately are simply devices of reciprocal altruism; they expect to be paid back in the future. Persons can knowingly, willingly, and regularly go against their survival and reproductive fitness. This has other applications as well, but most of them involve defying the id.
The distinction between human and artificial intelligence will likely be hard to define if technology does advance in that direction. However cybernetics is the application of machinery onto living things. It won't change us as a person. It may change the views you have on yourself and from others in a social context, but as a person your'e unchanged. A person is a human who abides by norms and values. Any less you are a sinner. Anymore and you're a saint.
A person a perception or an illusion of which a human is seen to be. It is a self characterisation of yourself or others. thats as much as i can say because i'm a bit lazy at the moment XD
