Are Computers Alive?

Will we be able to create a computer that can think? Who knows? But if we could, one important question comes to mind. Will those computers be alive? The advancement of computer technology is ever-growing but what will be the limit? Scientific exploration of all kinds should be encouraged to the furthest extent; but technological applications, such as "thinking computers", should not be considered as technology due to its paradoxical implication to slavery.

Being alive, in its encyclopedic form, is having life or being lively or animated (Webster). Having life is holding a quality that distinguishes you from a dead body or something inanimate. If computers are made to think, made to move, made to reason, are they not alive? Maybe they're not. Reasoning is very important in distinguishing us as humans from animals, but scientific analysis has proved animals also possess reasoning (Korsgaard, 1996, p. 153). If a person is born paraplegic, comatose, but able to breathe, is the person alive? Is it reasonable to say that if a person who is incapacitated is deemed alive, but an object that can speak, interpret, and respond accordingly not be alive? One thing is for sure, humans respect intelligence. A computer can be used, analyzed, and possibly improved; but a "thinking computer" in its essence, can easily surpass the utility and intelligence of design of a normal computer of today. If we can learn from a computer, is it alive?

If a computer was proclaimed alive, the law of the world would have to be revised. How would we treat the new "thinking computers"? If a computer files a report against somebody abusing it, would it be taken serious? That question leads to whether new computer life forms should be slaves or not. Abraham Lincoln would have opposed slavery to uphold unity. If somebody slammed their toaster down in anger, how would a witnessing "thinking computer" respond? How would the police, or even civilians like ourselves, defend ourselves against "thinking-computers" who process stored information at speeds rivaling ours today?