| If images from a really good anime movie don't come to mind then I don't know how much of this you'll understand (or care about). Ghost in the Shell in a anime based in the future. In this time most people have cybernetic implants in their bodies to augment their basic abilities. In fact, every piece of the human body can be replaced. Except the brain. It can be augmented and hacked into but not replaced. Or created. So the brain is what defines us as human. Androids are also created but they all have human brains. I guess that makes them cyborgs. I guess I should explain the difference for all those people that have lives. An android is completely artificial. A cyborg has organic components that it can't live without. But then a android is created. A completely artificial being that has a artificial brain just as capable as a human one. And the line of sentience is blurred. Again for you people that aren't up on your scientific vocabulary, being sentient is having independent thought. It's not just being alive but being able to imagine, go beyond the basic thoughts that are all hinged around survival. So art, music and philosophy are all examples of what makes humans sentient. Personally I think the term derives from a need to draw a line between us and the other inhabitants of this planet. But anyway, this is what more movies should be like. Things that make you think. For example. Just imagine what would happen today if some scientist came foreword and said that he had created a truly artificial being. Not something like Deep Blue (the famous chess playing computer). But something that has an imagination. Something that can learn. That has free thought and self awareness. Disaster would ensue. Millions of people would instantly think of every science fiction movie they've seen were the human race is enslaved by machines. Mass riots would be common place. And then what do you do with the android? What if he begins to construct more androids, to reproduce? Does he have the same basic rights that we do? All this thought was sparked by one movie. As all the best ones should. I suggest that some of you take the time and just think about something. Think of possibilities. And if that's brought on by a movie with big explosions, amazing effects and atomically correct cyborgs, it makes no difference. |