amh (12/07/82)
With all the discussion about androids and some netnusers claiming not to be androids, I must ask not about whether other netnusers around you are androids, but are *YOU* an android. Before answering consider the philosophical and theological questions involved. i.e. Determinism and Free will, The validity of Perceptions/recollections etc. Aldon Hynes BTL Pisc. harpo!pyuxjj!pyuxcc!amh
knutsen@sri-unix (12/08/82)
#R:pyuxcc:-40400:sri-unix:1300004:000:327 sri-unix!knutsen Dec 7 22:17:00 1982 Phil Dick wrote an interesting SF book called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" about the question "who is an android?". I think the movie "Bladerunner" was based on this, but I doubt it retained Dick's bizzareness. At the end of the book I wasn't sure I wasn't one myself, not to mention you out there. Andrew Knutsen
debray (12/21/82)
If we are to debate philosophical questions of such stature, let me point out that (a) One can never be sure that other users, or, for that matter, the net itself, "really" exists! (The old Cartesian argument of "Cogito, ergo Sum"). (b) Assuming, for reasons of convenience (and before the flames vapourize me), that Objective Reality is not a myth, it is probably not possible for one to know everything about oneself - even if the amount of knowledge is finite - since one will not know that one knows everything about oneself. This is analogous to the Halting Problem. In particular, an Android cannot know (unless told) that it is an Android. In any case, how do we DEFINE the distinction between Humans, Cyborgs, Androids ? The recent implantation of an artificial heart into Dr. Clark raises some fundamental questions about humanness - such as, how much of myself can be replaced by machines and still leave me "human" ? Heart ? Kidneys ? Lungs ? Limbs ? Blood vessels ? Saumya K. Debray SUNY @ Stony Brook