![]() ![]() Without these wholly arbitrary distinctions, we risk exposing the fact that we’re all a lot more like animals than we like to admit. This is because our very identities are fundamentally built on assumptions about who we are and what it means to be included in the category of “human”. While many people may find this process disturbing, these artificial distinctions between insider and outsider reveal a key element in the operation of power. Humans also do this to other “outsiders” such as immigrants and refugees. ![]() A similar process takes places within a military setting, where enemies are cast as less than human to make them easier to fight and easier to kill. People who the authorities treat much like animals, or less than animals (like pests) who need to be guarded against with anti-homeless spikes and benches designed to prevent sleep. And yet, as a society, we regularly dehumanise others, and cast them as animal or less than human – what philosopher Giorgio Agamben describes as “bare life”. But should robots have rights? And will humanity ever reach a point where human and machine are treated the same?Īt the heart of the debate is that most fundamental question: what does it mean to be human? Intuitively, we all think we know what this means – it almost goes without saying. ![]() Dick are fast turning from science fiction into science fact. Like it or loathe it, the robot revolution is now well underway and the futures described by writers such as Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl and Philip K. ![]()
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