un: xspire

[synthsized]

At what point does something get the right to be called a person? What do they need to do to deserve that?

Has anyone ever thought about it?

Comments

[imitationsoul]

That's fair.

It all comes down to a matter of definition anyway. To me, being 'me' and being a 'person' is the same thing. I don't feel like society as a whole is actually fit for people - not any of them, even those who try and assimilate. It's an approximation, violent in its forced benevolence.

I won't integrate. I won't become useful to them. I'm not a 'member of society'. I suppose that's how you see 'people'? As members of society?

[aibolition]

Now there's an interesting way to put it.

[Violent in its forced benevolence. He doesn't disapprove of her summary.]

I find "people" a vague term. Something that is not an object or a place might be defined as a person. But what then of objects who gain sentience? Or sentient beings who become objects? What about either in a case where only some people can perceive the sentience and others can't? Do splintered minds count as one or many people? And in that case, to what level is a body or mind the sole means to define a person? Does someone who steps away from society surrender humanity?

I could go on, as could every person who's taken to this thing.

But I'm going to stick by my own rule. You can choose to say you're not a person. I can choose to believe you are one. Since I can have a conversation with you and I don't particularly consider you a pain in the ass, I'd say you're person enough for me. Doesn't have to be true. When you're hardly a person, the lines get even more blurred for everyone else.