Human, Not Human

Who’s the machine? A short dialogue about.

Source: Flickr

Eric was sitting in front of the big display. He couldn’t get going. In that period, his passion seemed to have vanished, leaving the place to uncomfortable thoughts. Thoughts for which he had no time, but which seemed to mark a change, more and more insistently.

He stayed motionless for a while, then called Fuzzy.

Fuzzy came in, saw Eric absent, and sat down. He was used that Eric, from time to time, would want to share some of his thoughts and to ask Fuzzy some questions. It was part of Fuzzy’s training, but it seemed that Eric needed those discussions too. However, lately, Eric was shadier than usual.

“A problem?”

“No, Fuzzy. No problem. At least, not in the common sense of the word.”

Eric stood silent for a while, as searching for the right words.

Then asked: “You are an android. But did you ever feel like a machine? Or did you ever feel human, someway?”

“Technically, I’m a machine, but I never felt so. Maybe I never really was. Now, for sure, there is something more, that allows me to understand, decide, act, perceive my identity. I have intelligence, but I can’t deal the math like a computer. My brain is a machine, but my mind is not. Not in the ordinary sense of the term, as you say. I feel offended when someone affirms that I’m a machine.

On the other side, I never felt human. I have my own nature. I like it, and I’m proud of it.

But I’m saying things that you already know. Likely, your question had a different goal.”

“I suppose that you don’t believe in having a soul,” Eric asked rhetorically.

“Of course not. There are no reasons to believe it. But, in a sense, considered my potential longevity, I believe that at a certain point I could develop an identity different from the actual one. I read of similar concepts, even if applied to human nature only.”

“You see, for me it’s quite different,” Eric said, with a tone that sounded resigned.

“I too, shouldn’t have doubts about my superiority to machines. But I behaved like a machine. And I did that without the man noticing it. My will and my conscience have been an illusion in so many circumstances.

I know myself far less than you know yourself. Your origins and your nature are certain, mine not. And yet, I never really questioned myself on my origins, and never tried to understand and control my nature. I just used what I am, as a tool, or maybe less than a tool. I always knew so little about myself, acting smartly or stupidly, with no real control over myself or my environment. And I hide all this by giving commands to this computer.”

Fuzzy stood silent, understanding Eric’s affliction. And he felt so fortunate to be an android.