Good Bye, Jeff Getty
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E4DA163AF930A25753C1A96E958260&sec=health&pagewanted=1Jeff Getty, vociferous AIDS activist. The article makes a very interesting read. The idea of cross-species transplant is extremely provoking, and makes for a very detailed ethical debate (for some, that is). If you take my hand away and put a bionic arm, do I become bionic woman? how about if you take my head away and put it on a bionic body, do I become bionic woman NOW? Coming to think about this, how am I communicatiing on the internet? Its my head directing instructions via a computer (a bionic body). Is that in ANYWAY different from having a bionic body neck down?
The simplistic response to this would be- well, it depends upon my brain. Since my brain directs everything else, I am me, as long as I have my brain. wherein lies the real problem. We know very little of how exactly the brain works. Where is the divide between the brain and the mind? and the one between the mind and the body? Hofstadter wonders what would happen, if we replaced each and every cell in a person's brain with motorized neurons. Would you still be human, then?
Very interesting thought process. Too bad it comes alongside a rather solemn announcement, that of Getty's death. No intention to trivialize Getty. He seeems to have been a great guy. Good bye.
Labels: News
posted by Aish @ 11:54 AM
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