What Is A Human?

[faith]

Hello friends!

I found a fantastic scenario from a person on another forum. I hope RevolutionaryThink does not mind me using his reference. But the original discussion can be found here: http://www.sciencechatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=32399

And so the scenario goes (by mitchellmckain):

Imagine the following science fiction scenario: We find two habitable planets out there and to one of these we send embryos together with the means to ensure they mature into adults, but they get no more than that -- not even language. To other we send none of our biological inheritance but artificially intelligent androids (which learn like children do rather than simply being programmed) along with all our knowledge and culture. Which of these planets are human? I see more humanity in the second of these rather than the first because I do not equate our humanity with biology. It seems to me, the first planet, for the most part, has nothing more than human shaped animals. Some would like to fantasize that this first planet would eventually evolve its own civilization in a few million years imagining some mythological law of advancement, but the truth is they may evolve into worms, being the most efficient lifeforms to survive in that particular environment.

So the original poster, Mr. Mitchel L. McKain, believes a human is not the biological component but the culture and knowledge, hence he does not equate his choice to the first planet. This is a really interesting scenario because there seems to be no real answer. The first planet, has these wild humans that were left there, and so without reference such as culture and societal upbringing, these humans grow up without language, without structure, and for the most part, could be seen as animalistic. But aren't they still human because of the flesh and bone? The second planet has androids programmed  with all of humanities data so to speak, all of its knowledge base. They seem very human, BUT they are missing the biology. They're silicone. 

Which one is more human to you? Explain your position!

Thank you very much! God bless you all!

[alyra]

well the real kicker tho is, we are not human. 

 

IMO neither of them are human tho. "human" is this weird thing that lives on this place they call earth and runs around trying to be successful when that really has nothing to do with being alive. in this way, a thousand babies dying on a planet versus machines that never grow but only mimic our culture. neither are human. 

[alyra]

of course, not that I am so arogant to thing that human can only be this one thing. the point is, that fundamentally both scenarios are different from the scenario we are in. imagine an alternative reality where everything was the same except hitler was 100% successful and now the entire world was a derivative of his vision. that too would no longer be humanity as we know it. and it certainly would be more human that either of the scenarios. plus, we know for sure that the robots and the nazi world would both adamantly say they are humans, and we are just some fantasy a philosophist dreamed up for fun!