Read Online Terminator and Philosophy: I'll Be Back, Therefore I Am by William Irwin, Kevin S. Decker, Richard Brown - Free Book Online Page B
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human being? Isn’t a human body itself a complex collection of chemicals and moving biological parts? There’s a contradiction of some kind here. The only way to make sense of this is to assert that there’s a fundamental distinction between humans and machines: humans are not complex machines, but something else, something essentially nonmechanical in nature. If this were true, then it could still be possible for the T-1000’s mimetic abilities to depict a human in surface form only. So, in order to make sense of the T-1000, we again face the basic double standard of the Terminator story: humans are one kind of thing, machines another.
Of course, the T-101 and the T-1000 are not the only types of intelligent machines in The Terminator. There is also Skynet itself, the computational intelligence behind the rise of the machines. Skynet develops out of a military defense computer system that takes over human decision-making processes. As the story goes, it is initially implemented on August 4, 1997, and “becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM Eastern time, August 29th.” At this point, it consciously decides to wage war on humanity, initiating global nuclear war with the intention of wiping humans off the face of the planet.
There are some crucial assumptions here as well. First of all, to be able to pinpoint the precise time at which Skynet became self-aware assumes that conscious self-awareness is an all-or-nothing affair. You either are self-aware, or you’re not. Second, when Skynet achieves self-awareness, it immediately sets out to destroy humanity. So the Skynet plot line assumes that this self-aware machine would immediately have its own set of intentions that are at odds with human interests. Putting all this together, the films give us the sense that Skynet is a fundamentally inhuman consciousness, a being that is alien to human consciousness and purposes. So yet again, we see the basis for the “us-versus-them” dynamic at the heart of the story. Humans and intelligent machines are portrayed as having opposed interests and intentions that culminate in an all-out state of war between them.
Present Day: Humans as Machines
Yet do these assumed contrasts between humans and machines hold up to scrutiny? Not really, particularly if we humans are just machines of a particular type. Of course, this type of thinking goes against our long human history of thinking that we hold a distinct and privileged position in the universe. For example, it was once common to regard the Earth as the center of the universe, with all of creation revolving around us. Thanks to Copernicus, Galileo, and others, we now know that this once seemingly unique world is just a drop in the ocean of innumerable stars, planets, and other celestial bodies in our vast and apparently expanding universe. As another example, we once thought of ourselves as being distinct from the biological world of plants and animals, but thanks to Mendel and Darwin, we’re now aware that we, too, are products of biological processes. About 95 percent of the genetic code at the core of human nature overlaps with chimpanzee DNA, and around 60 percent overlaps with banana DNA. . . . Talk about not being special! Similarly, perhaps there is nothing especially distinct between humans and machines, either. Of course, we like to think of ourselves as the sorts of creatures that cannot be reduced to mechanical processes, but this may be just another idea destined for the historical trash heap of false conceptions. The supposed differences between humans and machines are becoming less and less clear through the humble but progressive scientific pursuit of truth. 2 So, contrary to the stark contrasts between humans and machines in the Terminator films, we humans can understand ourselves as machines.
Let’s take you as an example. Here you are, embodied in a living hunk of flesh, presumably holding a book with your arms and hands. Is there anything
Of course, the T-101 and the T-1000 are not the only types of intelligent machines in The Terminator. There is also Skynet itself, the computational intelligence behind the rise of the machines. Skynet develops out of a military defense computer system that takes over human decision-making processes. As the story goes, it is initially implemented on August 4, 1997, and “becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM Eastern time, August 29th.” At this point, it consciously decides to wage war on humanity, initiating global nuclear war with the intention of wiping humans off the face of the planet.
There are some crucial assumptions here as well. First of all, to be able to pinpoint the precise time at which Skynet became self-aware assumes that conscious self-awareness is an all-or-nothing affair. You either are self-aware, or you’re not. Second, when Skynet achieves self-awareness, it immediately sets out to destroy humanity. So the Skynet plot line assumes that this self-aware machine would immediately have its own set of intentions that are at odds with human interests. Putting all this together, the films give us the sense that Skynet is a fundamentally inhuman consciousness, a being that is alien to human consciousness and purposes. So yet again, we see the basis for the “us-versus-them” dynamic at the heart of the story. Humans and intelligent machines are portrayed as having opposed interests and intentions that culminate in an all-out state of war between them.
Present Day: Humans as Machines
Yet do these assumed contrasts between humans and machines hold up to scrutiny? Not really, particularly if we humans are just machines of a particular type. Of course, this type of thinking goes against our long human history of thinking that we hold a distinct and privileged position in the universe. For example, it was once common to regard the Earth as the center of the universe, with all of creation revolving around us. Thanks to Copernicus, Galileo, and others, we now know that this once seemingly unique world is just a drop in the ocean of innumerable stars, planets, and other celestial bodies in our vast and apparently expanding universe. As another example, we once thought of ourselves as being distinct from the biological world of plants and animals, but thanks to Mendel and Darwin, we’re now aware that we, too, are products of biological processes. About 95 percent of the genetic code at the core of human nature overlaps with chimpanzee DNA, and around 60 percent overlaps with banana DNA. . . . Talk about not being special! Similarly, perhaps there is nothing especially distinct between humans and machines, either. Of course, we like to think of ourselves as the sorts of creatures that cannot be reduced to mechanical processes, but this may be just another idea destined for the historical trash heap of false conceptions. The supposed differences between humans and machines are becoming less and less clear through the humble but progressive scientific pursuit of truth. 2 So, contrary to the stark contrasts between humans and machines in the Terminator films, we humans can understand ourselves as machines.
Let’s take you as an example. Here you are, embodied in a living hunk of flesh, presumably holding a book with your arms and hands. Is there anything
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