Poll: Can an android be human?

[Jamash]

Bicentennial Man anyone?

Android's are meant to look like a human. I suppose if you gave it a human brain it would be human. The brain contains the most of our characteristics, I doubt it could be replicated.

That's debatable. There's evidence to suggest that out characteristics, consciousness and instincts aren't contained in the brain at all, but in the cerebral spinal fluid (and possibly other organs too).

There have been cases of people born without any brain matter, or who's brains have been reduced by fluid (hydrocephalus).

There's even a famous case of a university student with a 126 IQ and 1st class degree in mathematics, who only had 4mm of brain matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lorber
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/science/is_the_brain_really_necessary.htm

So I don't think simple putting a brain into an android will make it human.

I think there's more to being human than simply having a brain, and despite being 'biological machines', I don't believe that our consciousness (or soul, if you like) can be replicated easily.

Even if every part of our biological form could be recreated artificially, I think our consciousness would remain the elusive, missing piece of the puzzle.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

I have strong doubts about it happening. Even artificial intelligence has its limits.

There's a test of artificial intelligence where people have a text based conversation with either another human or a machine (They have no idea which) and the machine needs to respond like a human would. Up to this point no machine has ever succeeded that test. Whether or not it will happen in the future's questionnable but I have strong doubts about it happening.

 

[fix-the-spade]

No.

If it developed personality, or what cold be thought of as a soul it still would not be human, it would be a species in it's own right.

 

[oliveira8]

I have a better question!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

If machines can perform racional "thinking" would they be considered a racional creature just like humans?

That is the point of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Battlestar Galactica.

 

[cobra_ky]

it's a poorly worded question. if you're asking whether androids will ever be part of the species homo sapiens, then probably not. i'm pretty sure that androids by definition aren't human, and even if we did something like bioengineer a complete human body we probably wouldn't consider it an android.

i think what you really meant to ask was "can an android be intelligent?" there is a big, big difference between being intelligent and being human, but people tend to be short-sighted and define intelligence in terms of human ability. take chess playing computers, for example. they're much better at chess than most people, but most people don't think they're really intelligent because they brute force solutions instead of really "learning" the game of chess. but what if we met a race of aliens who played chess the same way? would we consider them intelligent? what if they couldn't speak? if we were to encounter a form of intelligence wildly different from our own, would we even recognize it?

i don't know if androids will ever be intelligent because we don't really know what intelligence is. however, i can easily foresee a point in the future where AI thinking becomes almost indistinguishable from human intelligence and at that point the question will be rendered moot.

I have strong doubts about it happening. Even artificial intelligence has its limits.

There's a test of artificial intelligence where people have a text based conversation with either another human or a machine (They have no idea which) and the machine needs to respond like a human would. Up to this point no machine has ever succeeded that test. Whether or not it will happen in the future's questionnable but I have strong doubts about it happening.

people have been fooled by machines acting like humans for decades. the Turing Test is a flawed method of determining intelligence because it relies on subjective opinion which differs from person to person.

Asimov's best film in my opinion.

asimov never made films >.<

 

[murphy7801]

Bicentennial Man anyone?

Android's are meant to look like a human. I suppose if you gave it a human brain it would be human. The brain contains the most of our characteristics, I doubt it could be replicated.

is a truly awful film and just go read some Philip k dick

 

[Deathsquirt]

Since choices made by machines need to already have been put in by a programmer I'd say no AI could ever reach the same level as humans. It can be programmed to do almost anything but imagination would be out of its reach, obviously not counting randomization.

Any references to an AI from your favorite seem as moot to me as saying "there can be, because I'd like there to be."

 

[KaiusCormere]

I have no doubt that machines will outdo biological life forms in every facet of possibility. It may take hundreds of years, but they are capable of "thinking" so many times faster than we are.

 

[HerrBobo]

I voted no.
It's a machine, therefore it is not human. simple as that.

What he said

 

[A Raging Emo]

A machine will never be a human.

Fact.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Read it.

 

[cordeos]

its sorta moot right now, we are nowhere near creating true artificial intelligence, i personally believe that it may not even be possible

 

[GazJD]

I don't see why a machine could not reach a conscious state of mind 'like' a human, but in my opinion they will never be human. Think of it like a microwave and a conventional gas oven: They both can cook and heat food, but they will never be one in the same.

 

[P1p3s]

i vote no - im too lazy to explain (a machine wouldnt be - i think that is evidence enough)

 

[Aura Guardian]

Only in an Anime.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Terminator Salvation?

try posting a good movie next time. please.

You know what I meant...

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Its not so much android but AI, the mind of a creature can be human,sub human(which seems to be the range for most of humanity IE thinking bad,shiny pretty,I busy no need to vote,think,change also demonic could fit in this category) or some logical entity AI/alien,ect.

As AI develops it could develop 'feelings' via illogical processing refinement of it leads to more refine human range thought processing, in time AI can be place in bodies be they bio, metal and wire or a combination so becoming 'human' is a likely possibility in time since humans can be anything emotion/logic/feeling wise.

 

[Whiskyjakk]

but isn't most of our psychology brought about through pre-programming of the nature around us? We take in our surroundings and we learn how to act accordingly - computers are grasping this skill more efficiently every day.

I think in the future (not near) our definition of self and machine will become blurred indeed,

Battlestar Galactica anyone?

Our definitions of self and machine, natural or unnatural are already extremely blurred. Try reading 'Out of Control: the rise of neo-biological civilization' by Kevin Kelly or pretty much anything on the philosophy of mind by any philosopher since Aristotle who isn't hardline dualist or hardline materialist.

I think we could develop an android that replicates functionally the thinking of a human mind (of course that wouldn't make it a genuine human but then by definition an android isn't a human). We simply need to discover the function of every physical component of the human brain and replace them with artificial components. Unless you argue that there is something 'special' about the human brain which makes it impossible to replicate this is a conceivable possibility.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

If it's an android it can never be human as in "Homo Sapiens", so I voted no..

However, I think if our AI technology keeps developing, it could become a 'person', with real emotions, memories, thoughts and decisions made with its own judgement, but never become 'human'.

 

[Tharwen]

I personally think that it is impossible because so much of our personalities is based on what our bodies are telling us, so, since and android has a different body, it would be impossible for one to think like us as it has different stimuli. Thus the only way for one to be 'human' is for it to be made with an entirely human body, apart from its brain, which would have to be a human brain for it to process thoughts like us anyway, so you would, in fact, simply be genetically engineering a human.

Does that make sense?

It'd be an intelligent 'lifeform', as in it thinks and acts for itself. But it's not human, as a human is a species:
Wiki time: "A human is a member of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae"

The question posed in the OP is not 'Could an android ever be a human?'; it's 'Could an android ever have human mental characteristics and/or humanity?'