Sometimes, I wonder if I should change my minor from business to philosophy, judging from the stuff that's been going through my head (and into this blog). Anyways...

What is it that really makes us human? Is it the flesh and bone that we are made of? Is it our soul? Is it our ability to discern right from wrong? It may be that all three of those are required for one to be classified as a human. By 'human', I am not referring to being a homo sapien, either. I am talking about the other, deeper 'human'. It's almost impossible, for me, anyways, to truly define what it is that makes us human. Actually, why not use a movie to help bring things into focus. Why not, say...

Yes, geeky, I know. But, it's the best I come up with. Bladerunner doesn't really answer the question, but it provides an ideal way of how it must be asked. In the felm, the 'replicants' are supposed to seem more human than, well...humans. In the film's setting, the 'real' humans appear to have become cold, uncaring creatures. So much, in fact, that a method to discover whether someone is a replicant or not is to bombard them with situatations involving them supposedly not helping a poor, suffering animal. If the individual sshows horror and anger as to why they cannot help it, then they are replicant and are to be shot on the spot. The fact that they would want to help the animal, be it a starving dog or an overturned tortoise, shows that they are not 'real' humans. That caring emotion apparently cannot be found in natural humans at that point in time. That is what director Ridley Scott wanted us to realize, but is that really what determines humanity, or a mere portion? I, for one, think it goes deeper than simply that. For instance, if you placed a robot that possessed the aforementioned ability to care for things other than itself alongside one of the cold, heartless humans...we would probably still say the apathetic bastard was more of a human than the robot. Or, at the very least, we would not be able to decide.