What do you consider human?

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AdventChild
What do you consider human....Is it something that thinks for it's self has feelings doesn't really go by instinct develops technology and can build things.... is that what we as people today consider human.....what if we made robots that did all this stuff would they be considered human?....

Ketchuptome
A mammal that evoled so far we surpass our other animal counterparts.
YEAH!!!!

peterKSL
humans are one type of species, the same goes for dogs, and other species... if a robot is to made like a human, it can only be a replica and not called a human...

King Burger
Going beyond the biological, one definition of a
Human, is one that has a sense of moral, and
can think of, and even die for, things and ideas
that go beyond his biological necessities (like
food and sex).

Sicky666
Humanity is just a manifestation and a fase, but indeed it can think and kill, do you never consider why?

Reborn Again
To be human is a quagmire.

Adam_PoE
I suspect what you are truly asking is "what characteristics define personhood?"

I believe the fundamental characteristics of personhood to be intelligence and self-awareness.

Reborn Again
Originally posted by Adam_PoE
I suspect what you are truly asking is "what characteristics define personhood?"

I believe the fundamental characteristics of personhood to be intelligence and self-awareness.

How do we know that animals are not self-aware? And most have high intelligence in respect to their species. My dog is self-evident of both!

peterKSL
Originally posted by Reborn Again
How do we know that animals are not self-aware? And most have high intelligence in respect to their species. My dog is self-evident of both!


I totally agreee with u in this...

Jackie Malfoy
No robots or clones are humans nor monkeys.We ourself is human!jm

DarkCrawler
Wow. Really deep.

Darth Revan
Originally posted by Ketchuptome
A mammal that evoled so far we surpass our other animal counterparts.
YEAH!!!!

The thing about evolution is, a species can never be "better" than another. For example, a bear may seem superior to a blueberry, but in fact neither is "better." Each is adapted perfectly to its environment, and if its environment changes, it will in turn. Humans are a bit of an exception though, since the thing that gives us an edge also allows us to change our environment... erm

Jackie Malfoy
no

Darth Revan
Originally posted by Jackie Malfoy
no

no to what? I made a lot of pretty outrageous claims in that post missy, be more specific. geek

Jackie Malfoy
Originally posted by Darth Revan
The thing about evolution is, a species can never be "better" than another. For example, a bear may seem superior to a blueberry, but in fact neither is "better." Each is adapted perfectly to its environment, and if its environment changes, it will in turn. Humans are a bit of an exception though, since the thing that gives us an edge also allows us to change our environment... erm

You mention Evolution and to me that has nothering to do with the topic.JM

Darth Revan

Jackie Malfoy
It may say that but if you belive in creation it would be a different story.JM

Reborn Again
Originally posted by Darth Revan
The thing about evolution is, a species can never be "better" than another. For example, a bear may seem superior to a blueberry, but in fact neither is "better." Each is adapted perfectly to its environment, and if its environment changes, it will in turn. Humans are a bit of an exception though, since the thing that gives us an edge also allows us to change our environment... erm

Comparing a Bear to a Blueberry? laughing

Adam_PoE
Originally posted by Reborn Again
How do we know that animals are not self-aware? And most have high intelligence in respect to their species. My dog is self-evident of both!

It is not simply a matter of being self-aware but being aware of your self-awareness.

Sicky666
But our evolution is like a bug-evolution compared to that of other species, look at the gray aliens, they found us but we didn't find them yet...

Darth Revan
Originally posted by Reborn Again
Comparing a Bear to a Blueberry? laughing

Wouldn't call it comparing, merely using the two as an example to show that though a bear is considerably more complex and is actually aware of its existence, it isn't "better" than a blueberry. big grin

JM> Probably, but considering that Creation is a load of crap, you would be wrong in that case. And I'm confused as to how you can call yourself agnostic and believe in Creation at the same time.

Sicky666
A human is ye mirror of God, ye human can do what it wants if it just knew how?
All Gods and demons wants to be humans? And why? Why should you want something that is lesser than you? We are not lesser than any entity, the only difference is that they have the appropriate knowledge and we forgot, remember Thou origin, see what you really are...

Andrew McLeod
Humans can experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality. If you lose either of these, you cease to be human. Psychopathic killers are not human and should not be treated as such, hence corporal punishment and the death penalty. Animals do not experience complex emotions, nor do they think of right or wrong. They act on instinct. Animals cannot love or feel rejection, they are not human.

Darth Revan
Animals can feel love. It's not THAT complex of an emotion.

Reborn Again
Originally posted by Adam_PoE
It is not simply a matter of being self-aware but being aware of your self-awareness.

Controdiction in belief I'd say!

debbiejo
Originally posted by Sicky666
A human is ye mirror of God, ye human can do what it wants if it just knew how?
All Gods and demons wants to be humans? And why? Why should you want something that is lesser than you? We are not lesser than any entity, the only difference is that they have the appropriate knowledge and we forgot, remember Thou origin, see what you really are...

Yes, If only we would remember who we REALLY are.

Adam_PoE
Originally posted by Reborn Again
Controdiction in belief I'd say!

How so?

peterKSL
Originally posted by Andrew McLeod
Animals cannot love or feel rejection, they are not human.

I believe you are wrong on this... Animals do feel love and rejection... A puppy won't want you to touch it if you were to favour some other puppy after few days... It happened to my dog... it was a sad thing... Each time I wanted to touch her, she would want to bite me, and she's just depressed and alone... It wasn't totally my fault... it was my brother!! mad

Andrew McLeod
That's instinct. It was neglected and, for the sake of it's life, began to fend anything off. It's about survival. Animals live on instinct and only act and react as dictated by survival methods or stimulus from outer organisms. They don't have a thinking process, they just "do".

Storm
The striving for progress perhaps.

Napalm
Any createre that contains human dna

Cyd
prove

BlackC@t
Honestly, half of these threads try to make themselves deep and meaningful by asking questions that supposibly make you think. It's so vain.
A human is us, you and me. Regardless of our emotions or how we act.

I beg everyone that reads this, do not make threads that everyone knows the answer to.

hotsauce6548
Originally posted by peterKSL
humans are one type of species, the same goes for dogs, and other species... if a robot is to made like a human, it can only be a replica and not called a human...

Well said.

hotsauce6548
Originally posted by BlackC@t
Honestly, half of these threads try to make themselves deep and meaningful by asking questions that supposibly make you think. It's so vain.
A human is us, you and me. Regardless of our emotions or how we act.

I beg everyone that reads this, do not make threads that everyone knows the answer to.

And again...

Well said.

cking
machines are never considered living creatures. we don't say that we killed the machine but destroyed would be a better explanation. You don't kill machines, because they are not living. machines don't feel pain, remorse, hate, happy, or sad. they may be programed to do such but they can't do it by themselves. animals and humans have the same feelings in every category. they are considered living creature and killed would be more of a proper word for this instead of destroyed like a machine.

alcoholicpoet
Walking meat that has emotions.

cking
it did before it was turned into meat.

alcoholicpoet
Originally posted by cking
it did before it was turned into meat.

No we didn't, at the beginning of time when we were all scattered cells and atoms we had no emotions.

cking
were we basically nothing.

alcoholicpoet
Originally posted by cking
were we basically nothing.

Exactly my point, we had no emotions before we became humans.

Atlantis001
Originally posted by alcoholicpoet
No we didn't, at the beginning of time when we were all scattered cells and atoms we had no emotions.

Yes, but that is not proved. There is some studies where it was verified some kind of instinctive behavior in a protozoan.

Darth_Janus
Conditioning isn't neccessarily a sign of instinct... Human children and adults can be conditioned and show responses similar to love or attachment. I think you need to redefine "love" in order to make that definition of "human" stick. And then you'll need empirical evidence, sources... etc.

This is a question older than any of us. What is the truth, you may as well ask. The answer to this question is not as straightforward as a few sentences...

Cyd

cking
true

JediMusician
There are a lot of good points here. I especially liked the blueberry/bear comparison. This is a very good point. Every organism that exists is uniquely qualified to live in the manner that it lives. Nothing, and no one, can be better or worse than anything else.

But that has nothing to do with why we are human. In the simplest answer possible, we are human because our parents were human. A more religious answer is that we are human because God wishes us to be. I myself don't buy into that kind of religion, I am just expressing one point of view. You may have heard of someone being referred to as an "inhuman monster." Perhaps it was your history teacher speaking of Adolf Hitler. This brings this topic to a more philosophical tone.
Was Hitler human?
I'd say yes. His parents were both human, and he made moral decisions. They may have been immoral, but he was certainly not amoral.
Now another question: Does proving Hitler to be human mean all homo sapiens are human?
If you want to get all technical like that, then yes. All homo sapiens are in fact human. Some humans make really crappy choices that a lot of other humans don't like, but they are still human.
So my personal conclusion is this; to be human is to have 23 chromosome pairs and be able to make decisions more difficult than those that fullfill basic needs.

EsteemedLeader
i dont consider anything truely human. everything is made of atoms. humans are just atoms assembled in a certain way by electric impulses. these same atoms have been assembled in so many ways over the millenia, they are only part of a "human" for an incalculable amount of time.

JediMusician
When these atoms were part of a star, was that star not a star simply because its atoms hadn't always been so?
That's silly. Atoms are the building blocks of the universe, but after you build something, it has its own identity. An identity such as "star" or "human."

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