measure of a man

[Beawulf]

The stage they are classified as being alive is when they stop obeying your orders.

 

I think that might be too simplified. Data followed orders even after being granted rights to life. There probably has been an instance where he didnt but in general he does as he is told. He obeys because he has worked out in his brain that what he is being asked to do is the right thing

 

consider he could live an entire life and never disobey if everything he is asked to do he considers to be right. he can still think for himself and isnt any different, but during this theoretical lifetime all the orders are such that he would come to the same conclusions. he is the same data but in this situation by your definition he isnt alive

 

 

To use animatrix as an example, the only time one particular robot disobeyed orders and proved itself alive by your definition was when it killed its owners because he didnt want to be deactivated himself. It would be a shame if we had to wait for this sort of tragedy before granting status of life.

 

 

Here is where people jump up and say "Oh. So you think you are special? You think you got better eyes or more brains than the rest of us because you can see Zombies?".

 

What do you want me to say? If I have a college degree, the majority of society will agree that I am better than a person with no college degree. You may not like it that I can see things you can't. What can I do about it besides wait for you to grow up and be able to deal with your jealousy and envy?

 

sigh, I was hoping you were going to stop putting people down. noone here has said any of these things, there is no indication that we are jealous or envious. I didnt start this thread to find out who is smarter than who and I certainly didnt start it to be put down and jeered.

 

The topic is; when is technology classed as alive.

[elderbear]

upgrading our genes, no there's a can of worms

 

The biggest kink in this is "perfecting" the gene pool. The less diverse our gene pool becomes - the fewer genes we have to adapt to changing conditions.

 

When trying to design complex antennas that cannot be optimized with a set of equations solvable in closed form or by numerical methods, a frequent modern approach is to create a set of "genes" for each aspect of antenna design that can be traded off (a gene for the length of each element, a gene for inter-element spacing, a gene for element vector, etc).

 

A random set of antennas are generated - perhaps based on a more linear antenna design estimation process. These antennas are mated with each other - their genes combine and new antennas are created. All of these are evaluated by the desired set of criteria (cost to assemble, match, directivity, gain, weight, wind cross-section, etc.) The better 50 % are advanced to the next generation and the process is repeated. Sometimes, random genes are mutated, also.

 

The outcome is generally a much better antenna than could have been optimized by linear design techniques. I've built a few yagi antennas this way that outperform commercially available antennas, or that fit space constraints that commercial designs don't take into account.

 

What if we got rid of all our "undesirable" genes. Then, conditions change. We find that we've lost something from our genepool that would have been valuable in the new environment. We become doomed. None of us is wise enough to know which genes may be essential in the future. IMNSHO, it's best to safeguard the variety of our genes, rather than perfecting a monocrop set of ideal genes.

 

Of course, I might feel quite differently if I suffered from a major genetic disease (I've got a minor one - if the gene were recessive, I'd have above average resistance to staphlococcus skin infections. Instead, I'm stuck with lower than average resistance - but at least one of my kids is likely to have higher resistance than average ...)

[primehellix]

A little late, but... What does "upgrading genes" has to do with the topic?

 

We all've seen "The measure of a man", well - almost all. I think is says it clearly enough - what differs us from the machines is exactly the right to choose - that means FREEDOM, in all possible forms and meanings of that word. If you're capable of choosing and do what you chose, then you are... what? An intelligence. A life. :)