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Ask HN: Can ever a Toaster be considered having a life?
> Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased, or because they never had such functions and are classified as inanimate. [Wikipedia]
Even biological processes are a set of instructions that a body/vessel perform for a desired outcome.
So does that mean if we attach other equipment handling process' like signaling and self-sustaining, we can come close to call a Toaster possessing a "Life"?
- FranciscusG 6y agoIt depends on your definition of "Life". One can modify one's definition of Life so that a sufficiently sophisticated toaster is alive, or one can try to build a sufficiently sophisticated toaster, until our currently accepted definition of Life applies to it.
- wisewolfcorps 6y agoYes, it does depend highly on the context. There were no talks of artificial intelligence some decades ago but now that they are appearing it seems a highly possible way to keep Humans superior by modifying the context. Being a "living" or a "non-living" generates a different response in our daily life. This thought was based on the line that would ever "it" be considered different than what it is now! Thanks for your thought.