This has been in some movies where someone loses a limb and gets replaced by a prosthetic leg, for example. In that situation, what are you? A human? Yes, you probably are. If again you get injured and lose another limb and gets replaced by a machine, it’s still the same story. You can do this on and on until you’re left with a human heart and brain. Hearts can/will be/is being replaced articificially. Brains are difficult, but what some people would argue is important is that memories are the ones that make us human. Cool.
But what are memories when in essence it’s basically just regurgitated version of reality? It’s an occurrence in the past at a certain “what,who,when,where, why”. Machines can do that; Think surveillance cameras.
If hypothetically each and every cell of your body has been replaced with technology with all your thoughts and memories restored in that shell, will you still be considered ” human”?
I’d argue yes if that happened to me. Why? To be honest, I wouldn’t have any basis to that claim. The least I would accept is that I “was” a human, if you’re looking for logic.
But what I think is irrelevant.Am I, in absolute terms, a human? I haven’t even defined that myself in this article yet I’m using it to classify myself. Wrong right?
So, think aboutthis: you are now a “cyborg” in this world. For some hypothetical reason all humans get eradicated and you’re the only one left. You’ve survived time and new species show up either by evolution or space travel. They will call you “Alien” and not human. For them, you do not resemble a human, even if they had that information/history. No one can vouch for your claims since everyone’s gone. So in that new reality you are in, as far as the world is concerned, you are not human. You may be classified a “robot”. The truth about you being human is just in your head. Whether you accept this or not, this is the reality.
So to answer the question, I don’t think there’s a way to define ” being human”. It depends on how you are defined by the society. You were human up until everyone got annihilated.
And not to just give a lame answer (other than the fact that I really do not know what makes humans human), I think it’s purely societal.
The least you can hold on to is that:”You are You”
