Matthew S. Hayes
English 102-101
Dr. Chris Boese

 

Creation in the Hands of Humanity
    I am a Christian, and as a Christian I have certain beliefs I hold firm to.  I believe that the human race was created in the image of our Lord God.  The Almighty created us in order to have a relationship with Him. God gave us intelligence, emotions, and so much more; but above all else He gave us free will.  The human race has the ability to choose what or what not they believe in.  Humanity has the choice of whether or not to believe there is a God.  The human race has used the intelligence given to them to improve the quality of life in which they live.   If we have the technology, we use it.  Is this always right?  I don’t think so.  There is a responsibility to rationalize and make ethical decisions on what to use the technology for, or to even use it at all.
Technology is a powerful tool in fact most people say knowledge is power, but it is not power that makes something great or useful, it is what is done with that power that makes all the difference.  As the millenium approaches humanity finds itself with much knowledge and therefore with much power.  We have to decide how to use the power we have.  In the movie Blade Runner people created synthetic humans complete with emotions.  People cannot play God, and to try is futile.  Instead of creating new friends from spare parts humanity should stick with making machines for an intended purpose.
 
  Technology is advantageous in how it improves humanity’s way of life, but along with the benefits there are moral questions and concerns raised.  A cotton gin was invented to help separate cotton from its seeds.  Before this technology men and women had to separate the seeds by hand, which was a most insufficient method of production.  As technology progress’s the standard of sufficiency also increases and therefore demands of higher production is required.  As time goes by more and more people enter the world and goods and services are required to support them.  The cotton gin can again be used as an example because in the 1700’s that invention was sufficient enough to support the surrounding environment.  Today the cotton gin is not a productive means of supplying cotton.

    Very soon the world will have the technology to create machines that are identical to humans.  Machines that think, act, feel, and look the way human beings do.  The more human a machine is the better it will be able to do a human’s work.  To this I have to agree.  The more human it is the more flexible it is; it will be able to perform a wider variety of work and it will perform it to human standards more productively.  However, to make a machine physically look like a man or woman and to give it emotions is dangerous.  To give something life or the ability to think for itself is not a human’s job; that should be left to God.  In the Mary Shelly novel Frankenstein a young scientist had the technology to create a being from human remains.  The monster was created only to see if it could be accomplished.  Frankenstein created a humanoid life form but he was unable to fulfill the responsibilities of creator.  The monster, not under his control, caused havoc across the countryside.  Blade Runner also showed that humans are inept at creating life.  The replicants were not under control of their creators, and once again humanity paid for it.  The replicants strayed from performing tasks into becoming involved in their own survival.   A machine should not be made in the image of man; it should be made in the image of its purpose for being created.  A computer is one of the greatest inventions for mankind.  It performs so many useful tasks that help better the life of all who need to use it.  Yet a computer does not need to be made in a human image or have emotions that a human experiences, that in fact is part of what makes a human human.
 
    In the movie a man named Sabastian was one of the replicants’ designers.  He stated that the inventions he created were his friends.  Wanting a friend is not a valid purpose for the creation of a machine.  In Genesis it says that God gave Adam a companion named Eve so that he would not be lonely.  Even today and in the movie humans have spouses and friends that they themselves are human. machines should not be our companions or friends, instead they should just do the work required of them.
 
    In the time of Blade Runner humans have created machines that are so human the only way to tell that they are replicants is to issue them a test using a high tech mechanism.  For what purpose is a machine made to be human?  As I earlier stated the only reasoning I can think of would to be more productive.  Yet when a machine becomes so human there is a different problem other than moral responsibility.  instances where it was proven that the machines known as replicants made their own decisions based on personal experiences.  Rachel, another replicant, did not even realize what she was.  She believed she was a regular human being, even recalling childhood memories.  She made the decision to save a man named Decker by killing a replicant that was choking him.  She sincerely contemplated her existence by crying alone when she discovered her own identity, and then saving someone’s life shows how she is using her mind.  Opposition to this paper will argue that any machine can think.  Unequivocally that is correct but when an organism feels pain, not programmed to feel pain but feels actual emotional heartache on it’s own, and grows in an int Giving a machine emotion and the ability to think for itself is giving it rights of its own.  By rights I mean the right to live and to just exist.

    Where does life begin, when is something alive?  A machine is not human, but if made to be human is a machine still a machine?  I have read the dictionary and seen all of the definitions for life, but definitions have continuously been revised to fit the current accepted meaning of the word.  When an organism, organic or not, is aware of its own existence then it has life.   “I think therefore I am.” Throughout the movie there were severalellectual way by itself; then it is more than just a machine needing to be taken to the repair shop.

    A new toy trend hitting the nation is the Furby fad, it interacts and learns from whoever plays with it.  Essentially the toy mimics its immediate surrounding environment.  After programming set in a room by itself the Furby would cease to grow intellectually.  That is why it is a toy.  The Furby was made to interact with kids it has no “human” intelligence so it can’t think for itself.  If by the grace of God the Furby one day decides on its own that it wont be subject to the abuse of a two year old anymore is it still a machine?  It has now shown the ability to go beyond its program and expand into self-stimulating intelligence.  It has now gone beyond its intended purpose, not because of a glitch in the system but because it has decided on its own that it will not do what humans require from it.  This alone does not make the toy alive.  However it is one element of several that will be mentioned throughout the rest of this paper.  In the movie Blade Runner the replicants chose on their own to halt their services for the human race.  They even went as far to call themselves slaves to humanity.  It is my belief that these replicants were living sentient beings.

    Creating life is a monumental task; one that humanity cannot attain.  Playing God gets people into trouble, and creating something like that which was created in the movie is going beyond improving the lifestyle of human beings.  I believe God made man and woman.  Man makes the machine and with cockiness man tries to play God.  God does not take kindly to this and teaches man a lesson.  He allows man to get his wish by letting life into the man made wonders.
Life has unique qualities.  Definitions are irrelevant as stated before because they change as the world changes.  Emotions, self-awareness, and morality are a few qualities that have inhabited life throughout history.  The replicants were given and able to retain their own memories.  Why give a machine memory?  Machines can be formatted to retain information and learn from that but memories are something different.  A memory is what someone feels.  Emotion is what makes a memory from that simple information.  Emotion is why we feel the way we do.  When a machine can love or regret, feel sorrow and even loss then it has emotion.  What is the purpose of having emotions?  They are needed in order to make life more than a mundane existence.  Without emotions man would be no more than an organic compound on two legs.  Since emotions effect the way humans think then also mankind’s ability to think is hindered.  Emotion is a vital aspect to life.  To give a machine emotion is hoping that machine will think like the person does.  The motto of the Tyrell Corporation, the company that manufactured the replicants, was “More human than human.”  Their statement is morally wrong, but it is also wrong to treat these beings like property.  If a machine were just a machine then there would be no problem.
 
    If a “more human than human” replicant is made then it should not be treated like a lifeless tool without emotions.  If a machine can think for itself and a machine has emotions can it also conceivably have a soul?  This is a big question that only One can answer.  However I can make observations of moral practices by these beings.  Even at that moral practices are no guarantee of possessing a soul.  Though whether an organism has a soul or not is not detrimental to its existence, it only solidifies it.  Saving a life can be programmed into a machine but when killing is all a machine was taught and it then chooses to save a life that is a moral choice.  The replicant Roy was created to kill, that is what it was programmed to do.  Then at the end when Roy has a chance to kill the man who has been trying to “retire” him he instead saves him by pulling him off a ledge.  Going against what was programmed by showing signs of independent thought, moral obligations, and emotions.  Roy showed compassion to the man. That is an emotion many humans have failed to master.  To exist is the greatest gift anyone can have.  To take that gift away from a being that understands it is alive and realizes it will die is borderline of murder.  The replicants were awre of life and death.  Roy made a profound statement as he was dying; he names off several events and details he witnessed during his life.  He said that all these moments will be lost, washed away like the rain.  Any instances in time that Roy experienced alone for himself will be lost forever.  The sunset he saw at the beach or the full moon candlelit dinner he shared with Chris are gone.  His moments are his; as I am writing this I am thinking about my own memories and that when I die they will go with me.  Things I have seen that you haven’t.  There are things Roy could have contributed to the world if given a chance.  The statement Roy makes shows that he understands life.  Life is what you make of it, and the biggest component of life is the understanding of it.

    That said the replicants should cause the redefinition of life to include them in some way.   The only difference between a human being and a lifelike replicant is that God created man and God used man to create the replicants.  Why else would a machine be more human than human?  That is the only probable answer to the question.  A machine if created for a job does not need to be human, it only needs to be specified for its job.  I disagree with machines being made to be human because they can’t ever achieve that accolade.  Humanity won’t ever accept them as human but only as slaves that are not even alive.  God will not let mankind play Maker.  Humanity does not have the ability to maintain someone else’s life.  To toy with someone’s emotions be it a machine or person is wrong.  Let a machine do what its intended purpose is and end it at that.  Create a machine in its intended purpose and that let that be it.  If a machine has no intended purpose other than existence, it is human.