Robots & Minds

As you may be aware, a group of students have been investigating machines in inquiry, and shown a strong interest in robots in particular.  To support this interest we explored robots a little further in our philosophy session recently.  We watched some videos and photos of very human like robots and discussed how they are similar and different to humans.  Here is a snapshot of what we came up with.

"Because there’s a hole inside his head, that’s why he couldn’t be a person."

"They’re called a robot and we’re called a person, if they were real they’d be called a human"

"robots have wires inside them and they can’t get them out and that cannot mean they can be human."

"Because people have bones and tubes and robots have wires and they’re made out of diferent things and people are made out of skin and flesh and robots are made out of like metals and paper and string and things that humans do not have in their body."

What if part of you was replaced with wires and metal? What if you lost your arms and legs and had them replaced with prosthetics/robot parts? (Teacher Question)

"You’re still a person"

         Why?

"Cos the other ones are not like the ones that aren’t there any more...the other arms and the legs, they're not like the other arm."

         

"I think that you’re still human, because that makes part of your body metal and wires and tubes, so that makes you a robot"

"Then what happens if you’ve broken everything, and you need to replace everything?"

"You would definitely be a robot"

"I agree with that"

What if they replace only some parts of your body? (Teacher Question)

"You’re still a robot, I think you’d call yourself a human robot"

"You should call yourself a Roson (robot person)"

Can robots have a mind? (Teacher Q)

"maybe they do have a mind, maybe they took a brain out of a dead person."

(disagree, shake head) "because, if a person’s dead how would you break the skull to get inside?"

"They could have wires for a pretend brain"

Are they thinking? (Teacher Q)

"You’re thinking now, you’re thinking now!"

"No, because they don’t have any brain."

"Yes, cos’ of the electric cord in their head, all curly around inside them and going into their brain."

"Wires make robots think and brains make us think."

"I don’t understand what the difference is."

"I know there is a difference but I don’t know what the difference is."