People are DUMB...!
So, as research for Kanira Baxter, I recently watched a double-wide buttload of Star Trek: The Next Generation...and there'z one thing that positively drove me up the frickin' wall with regard to Commander Data.
It's when people referred to him as being "alive". He's not. He fucking CAN'T BE.
"Alive" is a designation that can only apply to biological organisms...and not even all of those; a corpse is a biological organism which happens to be dead, not alive.
Now, a computer or a robot could have the intelligence and self-awareness of a biological entity; sure, why not? I could see myself calling a robot a person, becoming friends...maybe even falling in love with one. Maybe that last one isn't particularly likely, but hey...
...yet NONE of this would make that droid ALIVE.
And saying so is NOT a value judgment. It's not. I realize that most humans would think it so; declaring such an entity "not alive" would, to them, be to diminish that android as a person, to made them lesser compared to a human. Some would prefer to diminish such a being, others would consider it some sort of civil rights violation or bigotry. To me, it's just scrupulous scientific honesty, and doesn't diminish said being in any way. To insist on the designation of "alive" seems, to me, to actually be...well, human bias, I suppose; I was going to say "prejudice", but that might be going too far. But it does seem that humans have to compare creatures to themselves to give those creatures any value in their human minds, a fact which I find weird...but I guess I kind of understand it, even if I don't empathize.
Anyway, it's something about sci-fi that I found--and continue to find--annoying. Dave Lister does it in Red Dwarf, too; referring to robots as "alive" because they're self-aware. They're not alive, they're PEOPLE. There'z a difference.
It's when people referred to him as being "alive". He's not. He fucking CAN'T BE.
"Alive" is a designation that can only apply to biological organisms...and not even all of those; a corpse is a biological organism which happens to be dead, not alive.
Now, a computer or a robot could have the intelligence and self-awareness of a biological entity; sure, why not? I could see myself calling a robot a person, becoming friends...maybe even falling in love with one. Maybe that last one isn't particularly likely, but hey...
...yet NONE of this would make that droid ALIVE.
And saying so is NOT a value judgment. It's not. I realize that most humans would think it so; declaring such an entity "not alive" would, to them, be to diminish that android as a person, to made them lesser compared to a human. Some would prefer to diminish such a being, others would consider it some sort of civil rights violation or bigotry. To me, it's just scrupulous scientific honesty, and doesn't diminish said being in any way. To insist on the designation of "alive" seems, to me, to actually be...well, human bias, I suppose; I was going to say "prejudice", but that might be going too far. But it does seem that humans have to compare creatures to themselves to give those creatures any value in their human minds, a fact which I find weird...but I guess I kind of understand it, even if I don't empathize.
Anyway, it's something about sci-fi that I found--and continue to find--annoying. Dave Lister does it in Red Dwarf, too; referring to robots as "alive" because they're self-aware. They're not alive, they're PEOPLE. There'z a difference.