I won't remark on the acting or level of amusement offered by this episode.
I will only comment on the depths of disgrace to humanity I felt in reaction to the serious premise of this episode and the claims made at the trial.
To claim that a holographic simulation of a person (the original human doctor) is also a sentient being with rights is an insult to human-kind and a logical absurdity.
If one were to cut a few hundred outtakes of Humphrey Bogart from many of his films and create a program to splice together words and movements, and combine those with a program cataloging and indexing it all, today's technology could create a simulation of Humphrey Bogart reacting to new situations and "making" creative decisions in reaction to the rest of the screnario of a new film.
Now admitedly there could be quality issues since you were "slpicing" together old clips - but the principle should be clear.
What the supposed holograms like the doctor are made of are simply original high-quality simulations of the original doctor's body, mannerisms and voice. This, combined with a huge multi-thousand line program can convincingly simulate the original doctor - though today's technology would only succeed to a limited degree.
But even if the database and program were enlarged to millions of lines of code and data about the original doctor, any actions the holgram did - even creativity - would be nothing more than a SIMULATION of a person!
Such a program can have the hologram display emotion - even act upon emotional algorithms - BUT the fact will always remain that the duplicate doctor is:
* a subset of the original, in range and complexity * a photonic display of a simulated person - having no body or other "place" in which to FEEL anything * the entirety of the holgraphic doctor's "actions" will be the direct simulation and projection of the scenario computed via lines of computer code - executed in electronic circuitry - NOTHING MORE.
The offense I experience at the absurd negation of humanity by such episodes is boundless. Allowing human perception of non-living simulations (just like TV and films) to create political movements to recognize "rights" of non-living creations is nothing less than a psychotic break from reality.
If only the above was the sole negative effect. Unfortunately, this blurring of reality and fantasy has begun erasing both logic and morality, and has started humanity down a slippery slope where feelings are no longer connected to life but are a subjective self-involved world where one cries about a movie (or hologram) and yet finds human life and machines to be equivalent.
I will only comment on the depths of disgrace to humanity I felt in reaction to the serious premise of this episode and the claims made at the trial.
To claim that a holographic simulation of a person (the original human doctor) is also a sentient being with rights is an insult to human-kind and a logical absurdity.
If one were to cut a few hundred outtakes of Humphrey Bogart from many of his films and create a program to splice together words and movements, and combine those with a program cataloging and indexing it all, today's technology could create a simulation of Humphrey Bogart reacting to new situations and "making" creative decisions in reaction to the rest of the screnario of a new film.
Now admitedly there could be quality issues since you were "slpicing" together old clips - but the principle should be clear.
What the supposed holograms like the doctor are made of are simply original high-quality simulations of the original doctor's body, mannerisms and voice. This, combined with a huge multi-thousand line program can convincingly simulate the original doctor - though today's technology would only succeed to a limited degree.
But even if the database and program were enlarged to millions of lines of code and data about the original doctor, any actions the holgram did - even creativity - would be nothing more than a SIMULATION of a person!
Such a program can have the hologram display emotion - even act upon emotional algorithms - BUT the fact will always remain that the duplicate doctor is:
* a subset of the original, in range and complexity * a photonic display of a simulated person - having no body or other "place" in which to FEEL anything * the entirety of the holgraphic doctor's "actions" will be the direct simulation and projection of the scenario computed via lines of computer code - executed in electronic circuitry - NOTHING MORE.
The offense I experience at the absurd negation of humanity by such episodes is boundless. Allowing human perception of non-living simulations (just like TV and films) to create political movements to recognize "rights" of non-living creations is nothing less than a psychotic break from reality.
If only the above was the sole negative effect. Unfortunately, this blurring of reality and fantasy has begun erasing both logic and morality, and has started humanity down a slippery slope where feelings are no longer connected to life but are a subjective self-involved world where one cries about a movie (or hologram) and yet finds human life and machines to be equivalent.
