The Nature of Human Life, example 1
I propose the following theoretical scenario:
First we have a male human being, called Sam. We convince ourselves that he is a
living system. We then take 50 million of his sperm and place them in a freezer. We
castrate him. Is he still a living system?
Hint: I believe that Sam thinks that he is alive.
Next, we take 50 million of his cells with their DNA and all, and place them in a
freezer.
Notice that he can reproduce, but only with the help of a willing, fertile female. But
then that was the case before he was castrated. Once one admits that the man whose
reproductive capacity is in the freezer is still a living system (and which man in that
situation will not defend his aliveness), we are almost done from a logical standpoint.
Now we just replace his pacemaker with an electronic pacemaker, his ears with
artificial cochleae, his pancreas with an artificial machine that injects insulin using
feedback from the sugar level in the blood. The pancreas also produces the hormone
glucagon to control metabolism. We make sure that the replacement pancreas
performs all of the functions of the original organ and connect it to the duodenum.
(This device is in clinical testing as of August 2004.)
Back to our hypothetical experiment… In turn, each organ (or group of cells) in Sam’s
human body is replaced until we have a human that sounds like, acts like, thinks like
and is indistinguishable from the original organic human Sam, unless we pierce the
very realistic skin replacement and find the underlying electronic organs beneath Sam’
s skin.
See The Inevitability Of The Inorganic Man
Nothing is left of Sam that is organic except his sperm, which is still in the same test
tube in the freezer, and his cells with their DNA, which is also in the freezer.
Absolutely no part of the living breathing multiply repaired human being called Sam
that we see before us is organic. Even the blood is artificial. (Perhaps the bacteria in
the stomach that aids digestion is still organic, but that is a symbiotic life, and not
part of Sam, the intelligent living human now made of inorganic materials. The white
blood cells that fight infection may no longer be needed because there are no viruses
that have evolved to attack these living organs except for computer-type viruses, which
I call “information viruses.”)
Traditionally, humans can only reproduce in one way. That method is using a sperm
and an egg combined as a result of a heterosexual act.
More recently another form of reproduction has been added to the mix. Humans, it is
thought, can be reproduced by cloning. Cells from the human that is to be
reproduced are taken and the DNA is substituted for the DNA that exists in a fertilized
human ovum. This is implanted into a woman’s womb and a baby comes forth, which
has identical genes to the person being cloned. The new human is like an identical
twin only separated by birth dates.
What is most interesting about the inorganic version of the human described above is
that not only is it only logical to consider him alive in every sense of the word, but also
he has an added means of reproduction compared to the organic human. This is
because one can make a duplicate of the inorganic human by ordering a second set of
parts to correspond to every part that was replaced.
Three types of reproduction would now be possible:
• Sperm and egg.
• Organic cloning.
• Inorganic cloning by manufacturing with spare parts.
Eventually it will be possible to grow human babies without using a mother's womb.
But why would we do that when it is cheaper to use a robot?
See: The Economics of Using Robots
Donbot
Next
I propose the following theoretical scenario:
First we have a male human being, called Sam. We convince ourselves that he is a
living system. We then take 50 million of his sperm and place them in a freezer. We
castrate him. Is he still a living system?
Hint: I believe that Sam thinks that he is alive.
Next, we take 50 million of his cells with their DNA and all, and place them in a
freezer.
Notice that he can reproduce, but only with the help of a willing, fertile female. But
then that was the case before he was castrated. Once one admits that the man whose
reproductive capacity is in the freezer is still a living system (and which man in that
situation will not defend his aliveness), we are almost done from a logical standpoint.
Now we just replace his pacemaker with an electronic pacemaker, his ears with
artificial cochleae, his pancreas with an artificial machine that injects insulin using
feedback from the sugar level in the blood. The pancreas also produces the hormone
glucagon to control metabolism. We make sure that the replacement pancreas
performs all of the functions of the original organ and connect it to the duodenum.
(This device is in clinical testing as of August 2004.)
Back to our hypothetical experiment… In turn, each organ (or group of cells) in Sam’s
human body is replaced until we have a human that sounds like, acts like, thinks like
and is indistinguishable from the original organic human Sam, unless we pierce the
very realistic skin replacement and find the underlying electronic organs beneath Sam’
s skin.
See The Inevitability Of The Inorganic Man
Nothing is left of Sam that is organic except his sperm, which is still in the same test
tube in the freezer, and his cells with their DNA, which is also in the freezer.
Absolutely no part of the living breathing multiply repaired human being called Sam
that we see before us is organic. Even the blood is artificial. (Perhaps the bacteria in
the stomach that aids digestion is still organic, but that is a symbiotic life, and not
part of Sam, the intelligent living human now made of inorganic materials. The white
blood cells that fight infection may no longer be needed because there are no viruses
that have evolved to attack these living organs except for computer-type viruses, which
I call “information viruses.”)
Traditionally, humans can only reproduce in one way. That method is using a sperm
and an egg combined as a result of a heterosexual act.
More recently another form of reproduction has been added to the mix. Humans, it is
thought, can be reproduced by cloning. Cells from the human that is to be
reproduced are taken and the DNA is substituted for the DNA that exists in a fertilized
human ovum. This is implanted into a woman’s womb and a baby comes forth, which
has identical genes to the person being cloned. The new human is like an identical
twin only separated by birth dates.
What is most interesting about the inorganic version of the human described above is
that not only is it only logical to consider him alive in every sense of the word, but also
he has an added means of reproduction compared to the organic human. This is
because one can make a duplicate of the inorganic human by ordering a second set of
parts to correspond to every part that was replaced.
Three types of reproduction would now be possible:
• Sperm and egg.
• Organic cloning.
• Inorganic cloning by manufacturing with spare parts.
Eventually it will be possible to grow human babies without using a mother's womb.
But why would we do that when it is cheaper to use a robot?
See: The Economics of Using Robots
Donbot
Next
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