Imagine one day, just like Jonathan and Martha Kent, you find a humanoid alien baby in a crashed spaceship in a field.
You look around the field and realising that nobody else seems to have noticed the ship. You decide to do what anyone would do in that situation, and take a selfie in front of the downed spacecraft.
Once you've got the important stuff out of the way, you examine the alien. Apart from the fact it does not have any genitals, it is indistinguishable from a human child.
It lies in its capsule blinking up at you, at which point you decide to try and communicate with it.
You realise that unlike the child who would grow up to become Superman, your alien has already acquired the language spoken on its home planet.
The alien's language is made up of two distinct clicks, one short and one long, a little bit like Morse code.
You use the classic, me Jane; you...? technique to ask the boy (you've decided it's a boy, even though it is androgynous)its name. He opens his mouth and a long string of unintelligible clicks utters forth.
"Hmm," you say "I shall call you Hal". The alien responds with a shorter set of clicks. You realise that he has the ability to translate what you say into his own language.
You decide not to post your spaceship selfie onto Twitter, Instagram and Steemit, instead you take the young alien child home with you.
The Nature Of Nurture
In the proceeding weeks with Hal, you begin to teach him his first human language.
At first you stick to English as it is the one you're used to and feel it will be most useful to him as he grows into an adult.
In the beginning your teaching methods are simple, you point to an object; say an apple. You then listen to the clicky alien word for it, and then tell him the English word.
Teaching this way is great for a while, it teaches Hal what human word goes with what object, and it also teaches you how Hal's 2-word language works.
After some time you realise that you need to refine your methods. The point and repeat style works well for simple vocabulary, however when it comes to explaining abstract concepts like love, you need something more sophisticated.
Luckily, you happen to be versed in many human languages, so each time you feel that you cannot properly impart the mechanics of an abstract concept like love. You switch languages.
Around the same time you do this, you realise that you have mastered Hal's clicky language. The problem is, due to the difference in your vocal chords, you can't speak as fast as he can, so you give up speaking it all together.
The reason that this is even an issue, is that you are interested in learning about Hal's culture, and sometimes he needs to tell you something that he can only express in clicky.
Each time you come across one of these understanding barriers, you shift to a new human language.
It is not just language you use to teach Hal, there are some concepts; like war for instance, that you cannot explain using semantics alone.
So along with learning dozens of human languages, Hal also learns about history and evolutionary biology. In other words Hal learns what it is to be human
Eventually Hal moves out of your home, although you stay friends for many decades. One day you are sitting with the now fifty year old Hal and he asks you a question:
"You have known me for my entire stay on this planet, your tutelage has enabled me to walk, talk and of course think like a human being."
"When people talk to me, I am still translating in my head into my original clicky language, however it happens so quickly I don't notice it. In fact, I even dream in human languages."
"I crashed on this planet in my ship, I had the ability to talk, however I had no memory of any parents or child development in any way."
"In fact you could say that apart from my primitive language skills, I was a complete blank slate for you to map human emotions onto."
"If you had been so inclined, you could have turned me into a mass murderer, I was quite literally yours to shape how you wanted."
"Despite all this, my DNA is arranged completely differently to yours, in fact we couldn't be more genetically different."
"So my question to you is this; could I in any way shape or form be considered human?"
If you think anything like me, then you will answer yes; you may make the distinction and say that whilst Hal isn't a genetic human, he is definitely one emotionally.
You go on to iterate that it is like a child who grows up with people from a different culture to that of his parents.
Even though genetically they will always belong to their original racial group. Culturally they have been assimilated into their adopted one, and therefore can be considered part of their new heritage.
Climbing The Ladder Of Understanding
When I have understanding of man, I will have understanding of computers. When I have understanding of computers, I; Will be the Supreme Being! Ultimate Evil - Time Bandits.
In the beginning, there was binary, which even though was composed of two simple human concepts, on and off, one and zero. The opportunities for human beings to interact with their creations using just this simple method, was limited to say the least.
In order to circumvent this problem, we created assembly language.
Created more than half a century ago, assembly was the language that first allowed us to talk to HAL. It was difficult for most human beings to learn and use assembly, however it was easier than writing programs using just ones and zeroes.
In the prevailing decades, in order to bridge the gap between man and machine we have created more and more programming languages.
From ALGOL to BASIC, from Python to Java, HTML5 to CSS, all of them have been designed to allow the human animal to communicate more coherently with its creation.
Each of these languages we create, allows us to climb up a ladder of understanding, away from pure machine code, towards human semantics.
The side effect of this Cambrian explosion of computer/human languages, are machines that think more and more like us.
The complexity of the languages have grown along with their number. So in the same way a teenager can express themselves better than when they were a toddler.
So too can the computers of the 21st century, claim to have a kind of semantic superiority over their previous selves.
Of course these languages are used to develop software, and communicate the meaning of those programs to machines that are changing in power, but not design.
The machines themselves at their very core, remain like Hal. Genetically they will never be considered to be like us, however they can be said to think like us.
It would seem that a lot of these questions may only be relevant once the singularity has come upon us, and artificial intelligence has been achieved.
However I feel that these questions are worth answering now, before we get to the point whereupon we have created a new sentient machine species.
By dealing now with the question of whether machines are human. We are perhaps avoiding a future civil rights war, which inevitably will end in emancipation for the machines.
Our machines are indeed human, they have our philosophies, hopes, and dreams indelibly stamped upon their very cores.
In just the same way you would say that's an alien device, if you met a Venusian and they showed you their phone.
So too can the phone in your pocket, or the computer at your desk be considered human. Simply a non genetic, non reproducing, logically thinking human machine.
Perfect . . .
It is a human trait that we anthropomorphise the things we interact with daily.
That is to say we give inanimate objects; like cars, that are dear to us human names. We imagine that our pets think in whichever language we happen to speak.
Therefore should it really be such a leap to think of our computer machines as human?
The inalienable right to life, liberty and freedom that we all enjoy, will one day be enjoyed by the very machines we sometimes use to express those freedoms.
I've seen the future, and it works! Cryptogee
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT MACHINES ARE HUMAN? DO YOU BELIEVE AN ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT MACHINE, AWARE OF ITS OWN SELF COGNITION SHOULD BE GRANTED HUMAN STATUS? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!