In our last class we talked about empathy and sympathy, and I wondered about how that applies to differentiate between people and other beings. We’ve already had the discussion about robots and humans, and whether one can become the other and how that’s different from one being treated the same as the other and so on. I’ve already expressed my opinion about that (In case you didn’t read that post, I’m of the opinion that humans and robots cannot become each other, but once robots have the same traits previously only seen in humans, like emotions and creativity, they’re entitled to equal rights), and I was just wondering: what about animals? And it seemed to me that once robots can empathize and sympathize with humans, they would be entitled to the same rights as humans; animals, however, will never be able to empathize/sympathize with us; that’s what makes them animals. The only non-humans that are completely human-like in that regard are beings like robots and fantasy creatures, such as vampires. Notice that neither currently exists (though we’re making headway on the robot front). Basically I’m just thinking that the criteria to gain “humanity,” or rights equal to humans, is the ability to sympathize and empathize with them. And animals don’t fit into that category. I found that really interesting.
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