SUBMITTED BY Scooby
May 28, 2003 — The LA Times has published an interesting take on whether the machines in The Matrix and other movies are really all that "evil." Here's a clip:
The problem may be that we don't exactly know how to define "human" anymore. (We'll see another cinematic example of the receding line between people and 'bots when the third installment of the "Terminator" series blasts onto cineplex screens later this summer. What does it say about a film's view of the human condition when the machine, a.k.a. Arnold Schwarzenegger, keeps being asked back for the sequels?)
"There's a huge philosophical discussion about what makes a person a person, but I think the important thing to acknowledge is that a nonhuman can be a person," says Michael S. McKenna, an associate professor of philosophy at Ithaca College in upstate New York. "E.T. could be a person, Data from 'Star Trek' could be a person. There are some scientists who think that a dolphin could be a person. Consciousness depends on the ability to reflect upon and evaluate oneself. You needn't be a human being to be a person, and given that it's possible there are animals that are nonhuman persons, it's not inconceivable to imagine that you could build a person."
Read more at the link below.
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