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[Reelya]

E: Finally looked up the actual name of the lone ranger theme song. Alas, poor march of the swiss soldiers, generations know you as nothing except that theme song.

That reminded me of my favorite misappropriation of existing culture: the "nimrod" insult. The source of that is Bugs Bunny / Elmer Fudd cartoons where Bugs calls Elmer "Nimrod". Generation of kids decided that Nimrod was an insult, like "dickwad".

However, the actual word was a literary reference. Nimrod was a renowned hunter in the bible. Bugs called Elmer, a terrible hunter, Nimrod in the same sense you might say "way to go, Einstein" to someone who did something dumb, or "No shit, Sherlock" to someone who said something obvious. So the kids watching the cartoon who didn't know who Nimrod was assumed it was just an insult word.

[Ulfarr]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

[Naturegirl1999]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Doomblade187]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Citation Needed]

((Nah, we're just messing around. Also please spoiler images.))

[Naturegirl1999]

Sorry

[pikachu17]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nice human disguise. Where did you find it? The seventeen of us could use one.

[Mathel]

All at once, or in groups? I'd think that 17 pikachus would have somewhat larger volume than a regular human.

[wierd]

Not if some are inside pokeballs.  Monster's gotta adapt!

[Naturegirl1999]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nice human disguise. Where did you find it? The seventeen of us could use one.

This isn’t a disguise, though there isn’t really a way I can prove to be a human, it could be synthetic skin and there wouldn’t be a way to prove whether it’s real or fake. We tend to, right now, assume that if a creature looks and acts like a human, then they are a human, though theoretically a human would know it is one. I think I am human and live with humans, I act enough like a human for others to think I am one. If I think I am human, and other humans think I am human, then it is likely thst I am indeed a human.

[wierd]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nice human disguise. Where did you find it? The seventeen of us could use one.

This isn’t a disguise, though there isn’t really a way I can prove to be a human, it could be synthetic skin and there wouldn’t be a way to prove whether it’s real or fake. We tend to, right now, assume that if a creature looks and acts like a human, then they are a human, though theoretically a human would know it is one. I think I am human and live with humans, I act enough like a human for others to think I am one. If I think I am human, and other humans think I am human, then it is likely thst I am indeed a human.

Or a robotic probe manufactured by aliens, with very sophisticated programming!  *Tinfoil hat*

(Self-belief is not a good indicator or metric by which to judge somethings or someone's factual status.  For instance, narcissists genuinely believe that they are not doing anything wrong with their behavior. There is nothing magically transformative about self-ignorance.  See also, the twist of I-Robot, or with BladeRunner-- Protag acts and genuinely believes they are human in both cases-- Reality is something else entirely.)

[Rolan7]

Which, of course, applies to any of us as well - whether or not we're aware of it!
Regardless, we're definitely all people.

[Il Palazzo]

Or a robotic probe manufactured by aliens, with very sophisticated programming!  *Tinfoil hat*

As an alien probe* manufactured by robots, I take umbrage with this stereotypical representation of probe-manufacturer relationship!



*just joking, I'm a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Naturegirl1999]

Are you seriously telling us you've only just discovered the concept of suicide?

My working theory is that NG is an alien AI on a quest to measure the extent of humanity's knowledge and ideals. Explains the very wide range of interests that NG has expressed through their questions/posts.  : D

I am a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nice human disguise. Where did you find it? The seventeen of us could use one.

This isn’t a disguise, though there isn’t really a way I can prove to be a human, it could be synthetic skin and there wouldn’t be a way to prove whether it’s real or fake. We tend to, right now, assume that if a creature looks and acts like a human, then they are a human, though theoretically a human would know it is one. I think I am human and live with humans, I act enough like a human for others to think I am one. If I think I am human, and other humans think I am human, then it is likely thst I am indeed a human.

Or a robotic probe manufactured by aliens, with very sophisticated programming!  *Tinfoil hat*

(Self-belief is not a good indicator or metric by which to judge somethings or someone's factual status.  For instance, narcissists genuinely believe that they are not doing anything wrong with their behavior. There is nothing magically transformative about self-ignorance.  See also, the twist of I-Robot, or with BladeRunner-- Protag acts and genuinely believes they are human in both cases-- Reality is something else entirely.)

This is true
How do any of us know we are humans? How do other people go about proving thst who they think are humans are indeed humans? Conversations?

Or a robotic probe manufactured by aliens, with very sophisticated programming!  *Tinfoil hat*

As an alien probe* manufactured by robots, I take umbrage with this stereotypical representation of probe-manufacturer relationship!



*just joking, I'm a human

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is a picture of me taken with a camera

[Mathel]

Which, of course, applies to any of us as well - whether or not we're aware of it!
Regardless, we're definitely all people.

We are. But are we humans? I think we are, but what do I know. Perhaps half of you are actualy aliens and the a quarter are AIs.

Il Palazzo, the ninja-bot raises a good point. A photo of a human does not nescessarily mean a photo of oneself. But I will believe Naturegirl1999 that she is human, based on the fact that the only way to disprove it would be to physicaly find her and do tests on her, which I am too lazy to do.

[wierd]

I kinda harp on the "belief is not sufficient" bandwagon, because I deal with dementia every day.

People with dementia genuinely believe some very bizarre things.  They are not "Lying" when they report these things, and insist on their truthfulness-- Lying requires knowledge of the deception.  Rather, they are relating non-factual accounts.


If I were to design a deep-cover reconnaissance probe, and had access to advanced AI and nanofabrication technologies, (and had precisely ZERO fucks given about ethics, either for AI or for sentience in general), the ideal design would be one that is indistinguishable from the studied subject population, and which is incapable of revealing any long term plans or details about its operation, because it itself does not know.

It would give completely unbiased return footage/data, because it does not choose what data to send-- it is always sending.  It just "Lives its life" down there, and tells me all about it, all the time, completely unawares.  Further, if it experiences all aspects of the subject population's culture-- such as birth and childhood, then its resultant "Personality" would be free of any meddling or bias on my part; It would be a member of the society it was sent to study covertly, and its own biases that it develops would be part of the dataset collected.


That of course, presumes that hyper-advanced aliens are up there, and that they have those qualifications. Russel's Teapot applies. 

The philosophical implications about such robotic probes are fun to explore though.