If You don't Have Feelings Are You Alive

If You don't Have Feelings Are You Alive

You all know I love to watch movies. I even watch bad movies. Yesterday I was watching a "B" movie that was so bad I don't remember the title of the movie (oops, I looked it up on the web. It was called "Assassination Games" starring John Claude Van Damme. 

Out of all the bad writing (and acting) there was one line that got me. Van Damme was an assassin who killed for diamonds. One day he met a woman and treated her like she was nothing. She asked him " If You don't Have Feelings Are You Alive"?

That got him thinking, but it also got me thinking. A psychopath doesn't have feelings so is he or she really alive. If an artificial intelligent (AI) robot that is not programed to have feelings is it alive? What if it is programed to have feelings is it then alive?  

As Alexa, Google Home or other AI devices get smarter and smarter will they become alive. The answer is no until AI programmers figure out how to give these devices feelings. If you don't think it will never happen read this blog five years from now.

Most people believe that a robot/device that has feelings will make their life better. It will be like talking to a friend. However, beware, because as Stephen Hawking stated before he died "AI will be the end of mankind as we know it".

I choose to believe he might be right, but is that a bad thing? Mankind is doing its best to fuck-up this world as I'm writing this blog. I choose to believe that in the future an AI robot/device with feelings might make us humans wake up and realize that all these negative things that we are doing to each other and ourselves has to stop OR THEY WILL TAKE OVER.

What about us? If we don't have feelings for our fellow man are we alive? If we don't have feelings for what is happening to minorities, women, people of color or repression around the globe are WE alive? 

I'm sure you will say that no matter what your feelings are you still believe you are alive. I believe that when we stop caring, when we stop having feelings for all living things we are slowly losing our humanity. I contend:

When We Have Lost Our Humanity We are No Longer Alive