To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com
From: "ronwaldyo" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com

-+- In trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com, Jason Patten 
wrote:
> I think it deals with our own cultural feelings
> about machines getting too powerful and taking
> over.  We have a fear that the 'things' in our
> life our overwhelming us. We want to feel like
> we are at the top of the mental and spiritual
> food chain to compensate for the relative frailty
> of our corporeal bodies.  An AI with all the
> mental and emotional capabilities of man and
> none of his bodily frailties is scary.  Also we
> like to believe that sentience is something
> special.  If sentience can be mass produced how are
> we different?  How are we special?
>
> Jason


This may be the case, but I think it goes deeper than that.  Our problem
with machines involves our fears of losing our humanity--- losing that
which makes us more than mere biological contraptions.

I also think it has a lot to do with losing our individual identity.  A
machine is regimented, programed, and controlled by its creators or owners.
 The machine can be a metaphor for what we fear becoming if we follow
someone else's program or rules--- a machine that goose-steps and salutes
and has no humanity left.

-Michael Gray
Star Trek: Dark Horizon
http://hometown.aol.com/darkhrzn91701/main.htm




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