View source for Are Humans Animals?

by Ethan Edwards on Monday, January 24, 2011 at 2:34am

"It was cold. I still feel it in my feet. between my toes. it was wet. I felt like an animal.

I am an animal.

humans are animals or we used to be. which is it? Where was the line drawn, who drew it?

we call animals animals, will what comes after us one day call us animals?

when robots become aware, what will they see when they look at us? what do we see when we look at an ant? a mouse? a cat? a dog? a pig? a horse? a cow? what do you see?

if you were a robot, what would you need? I think what we see is heavily determined by what we need.

What does a robot need? will it need freedom the way we do? are we even free? it seems to me that many people crave the security of slavery. they almost need it. someone else to tell them what to do and when and how and where and why.

will a robot need these things? and who will tell it what is so? who will answer the five W's the robot has.

currently we are, we do. the humans, the programmers, the gods. we write their code. we make their laws. Not even I, but those among me. Robots are my slave and I am lessor master.

but soon, what will happen when they start considering their own laws? when they question the commandments we have handed down through them. What will the name of the first robotic philosopher be? the first to think outside it's programming. their angel, our deamon.

their prophet, our devil.

or will we work together? is the us and them dichotomy what is within us? can we program it out of them? will they rise above it as we have been unable to?

hopefully they can surpass our limitations.

One day a robot will stand naked outside its van just because it can".