The Mechanic [BL]

[100]

Chapter 100 – Feathered Serpent City (6)

"What is a human?"

"A bipedal mammal, descended from the late primate race Homosapiens. It is characterised by a large brain capacity, sparse body hair and flexible hands, with a well-developed brain and thus a complex consciousness. Humans have created a unique language system, cultural background and social structure and although they are gregarious animals, they are highly differentiated."

Zhang Xun, pacing alone in the empty hall, listening to Pan's answer and continued, "If a human loses an arm, is he still human?"

"Yes."

"And if he loses all his limbs, is he still human?"

"Yes."

"If he has only his head left and is placed in a petri dish and filled with a life-sustaining solution, is he still a human being?"

"Yes, but a severely damaged and incomplete human being. Because of the lack of hormonal changes and tactile stimulation in the body, the brain would be in a state of hypoarousal, producing unknowable abnormal reactions for long periods of time, unless the brain is given artificial stimuli that simulate the real environment and make it think the body is still there."

"If all parts of the body are replaced with bionic machinery, except the brain, is it still human?"

"Human, but not fully human. It's not possible to simulate a living body using a mechanical environment with zero error so far and the brain is an extremely sophisticated organ that reacts to any physical changes, so this level of modification would have an effect on the natural brain to a greater or lesser extent. I think it would probably be more appropriate to refer to all people with a body modification rate of over seventy percent as cyborgs."

"So......" Zhang Xun rubbed his chin, searching for all the possible borderline categories, "if a person's brain is one percent damaged and replaced with a mechanical brain, is that person still human? "

"An incomplete human being. Any modification of the natural brain would cause some degree of damage to the human identity. If it is one percent of the brain that is modified, it may end up causing far more than one percent in terms of consciousness and personality. I think we should refer to people who have had their brains modified directly as second-generation people."

Zhang Xun nodded, more than satisfied with this answer. After a pause, he continued to ask, "If a person's consciousness is transformed into data and transmitted from the brain to the cloud, is that still a human being?"

Pan replied calmly, "No. Consciousness data that has lost its physical support is very fragile, extremely changeable and has lost all of its characteristics as a human being. It should no longer be treated as a human being."

This series of parameters was the result of retraining Pan by re-entering a large amount of data after Zhang Xun had modified the parameters. It was very preliminary and there were likely quite a few cases he hadn't collected yet, but his time was limited after all and he had to finish debugging Pan before he could start making the nanobots again.

Standing in front of the camera, Zhang Xun said, "Who is the target population you're serving?"

"All humans, intact and incomplete."

"What are your guidelines when you are performing medical services on your target population?"

"Make every effort to maintain the integrity of the human identity while ensuring the survival rate of the other person. If a reduction in human identity is to be performed, permission is required from an administrator or authority one person. Authority one personnel include the patients themselves. When the patient himself or herself is unable to make the decision, an immediate family member will be the one to do so."