When are we no longer humane?

[jasong]

I couldn't come up with a good title yet again. The question is how much can you remove from a human without taking away their humanity? Does the brain need to stay? If you transfer their memories to a robot that doesn't operate in the same way as a human, are they still human? What if you stick an infant's brain into a robot that can move around independently, but the robot looks nothing like a human and no one tells it that its main processor is a human brain?

[CRGreathouse]

For now, I'd say human = has a human brain. We're extremely far from being able to put a humanlike brain on a computer, much further than having human-level artificial intelligence.

[Flatlander]

Being human involves:
The ability to make edible ball bearings.
Crying when you are happy.
Not being completely turned into a cyberman if you are really strong.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by jasong

I couldn't come up with a good title yet again. The question is how much can you remove from a human without taking away their humanity? Does the brain need to stay? If you transfer their memories to a robot that doesn't operate in the same way as a human, are they still human? What if you stick an infant's brain into a robot that can move around independently, but the robot looks nothing like a human and no one tells it that its main processor is a human brain?

Good questions!

AFAIK, none of them have clear cut answers.


Something to think about: is HeLa human? Some biologists, only a small minority I believe, would prefer it to be categorised as a separate species.


Paul

[firejuggler]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Being human involves:
The ability to make edible ball bearings.
Crying when you are happy.
Not being completely turned into a cyberman if you are really strong.

I would dissagree with you, Flatlander. Any sentient species would qualifies. For now, 'we' are the only one. Future is open.

for the title :
Human, Limited (c)

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by xilman

Good questions!

AFAIK, none of them have clear cut answers.


Something to think about: is HeLa human? Some biologists, only a small minority I believe, would prefer it to be categorised as a separate species.


Paul

Paul just opened a can of worms! Any cancer cell line (especially after a thousand generations) (and I have dealt with 1065 different ones) is in a lot of sense no longer related to the host - they may have four copies of some chromosome segment and lack some other chromosome completely... etc etc. They have translocated and fused chromosomes. That's far more distant from any human than any human from a chimp.

Even a cancer that is still in a human is in some sense no longer strictly human by DNA. It's an endless topic.

But by the "has a human brain" definition, HeLa (it was a set of uterus, not brain cells) is surely not human. But what about a brain cell line!?

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Batalov

Paul just opened a can of worms!

I don't think I can take the credit for that.

Jasong opened the can. I merely drew attention to some of its contents.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Batalov

But by the "has a human brain" definition, HeLa (it was a set of uterus, not brain cells) is surely not human. But what about a brain cell line!?

Because in Latin, "cervice" is used for both brain and uterus...

Luigi

[Batalov]

Neck?
I know about neck (both organs are at the neck).
(It's a pain in the neck ;-)

Maritus est cerebrum
Uxore est collum et vertit cerebri, ubi ipsa velit

[only_human]

Originally Posted by jasong

The question is how much can you remove from a human without taking away their humanity?

Similarly, how much can you replace and still be the same person?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

[LaurV]

We are no longer humane when we make such clips:
(edit: if you go directly on youtube, the comments worth all the money)