Uploading of human brains to machines sounds like something only found in science fiction stories; however, this might be something that happens in real-life sooner than we may think, according to Professor Brian Cox. Cox believes that we may soon be able to create sentient machines that have the same intelligence capabilities as humans. At this point, we have developed software that can bypass security measures set in place to distinguish between human and machine, so we are on our way to turning science fiction into reality.
The big question that this sparks in my mind is: at what point do we become machines rather than humans? If we have a completely robotic body but still maintain a human brain, are we still human? What makes us human? In the short story “Say it with Flowers” by Ernst Vlcek, the main character’s brain is transferred into this large troop transporter machine, where ‘her’ one purpose is to pick ‘flowers’ (which turn out to be people). In the context of this story, I do not believe that inserting a human brain into a machine makes that machine human now. Even as a simple character with one purpose in life, Monica does not maintain the ability to fully comprehend the difference in her actions when her body is a machine. In my opinion, this crosses the line distinguishing human from machine.
Good points about “Say It With Flowers.” And yes, there are many questions around the line between human and machine, and what it means, actually, to “be” human (and perhaps even if being human is such a great thing!).