What would you do?

[Romulus111VADT]

My wife and I were discussing the movie, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”

It’s basically about a little boy android that imprints to a human female and considers her his mother. After her biological son is cured of a disease and returns home. The mother becomes afraid of the robot and tries to just get rid of it by leaving it in the woods.

The android then sets out on a long quest to find the Blue Fairy to get her to make his mother love him. He and an “Intelligent robotic stuffed bear” end up being frozen for many thousands of years. They are discovered long after humans have gone extinct by aliens that are doing archeological research trying to understand the human race.

The aliens can take frozen dead bodies and use DNA to make copies that they can study. But the only problem is they can only live one day and can never be reanimated again. The androids bear had a clipping of his mothers hair. The android asks to have her for one more day to love him just one more time.

My wife and I debated whether we’d want anyone of our deceased relatives brought back for only one day. We decided though it would be wonderful to see them again even for a day. That the happiness would be tempered by the fact that we’d watch them die again.

My question to my friends is simple; “What would you do?” “Would you bring back a loved one for only a day?”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

[Fozzer]

Rom....

I need some of that "Blue Fairy" special alcoholic brew, that you have been partaking of.... ... ...!

Paul...HIC... ....!

[ozzy72]

Quite a heavy philosophical question that Craig. There are the two sides as you say. I'm not sure I'd want to go through the pain of losing someone special again... but it would be lovely to have time with them and say all the things I never got to say.

[Fozzer]

Being the VERY practical sort of bloke that I am, I just cant get my head around anything like that actually happening.... ....!
Try as I might, I find that my imagination definitely wont stretch that far nowadays... ...!
I am very dubious about most things!

I just "remember" folks from my past now.

All sorts of things were possible in my younger days....even Star Trek!... ......but not any more...trust me!... ...!

Paul....beware...I may come back to haunt you all!.... ...!

[G.K.]

I remember the film, a real tear jerker (according to my wife ).

There was always a flaw in the plot (sorry to burst any bubbles). Cloning does not bring back the personality, it only brings back the physical characteristics. The personality is made up from relationships and experiences, there's no way those things can be learned from a lock of hair.

That aside and supposing it was possible, I'm with Ozzy72.

[Romulus111VADT]

I remember the film, a real tear jerker (according to my wife ).

There was always a flaw in the plot (sorry to burst any bubbles). Cloning does not bring back the personality, it only brings back the physical characteristics. The personality is made up from relationships and experiences, there's no way those things can be learned from a lock of hair.

That aside and supposing it was possible, I'm with Ozzy72.

It was a SCIFI movie and it was placed at the time of the aliens thousands of years in the future. So in the hypothetical film genres of any scifi movie; it was possible by the "aliens" several millennia in the "future".

Bet you must have gone wild with Quantum Theories over the paradox riddled movies about the "Terminator"......

[G.K.]

I know, I know lol

......But having been weaned on classic scifi I'm a bit of a pedant for these things. Good SciFi should have science that is at least vaguely possible by stretching a theory. I can hear Arthur C Clarke turning in his box

As for time paradoxes and quantum thingies, it's time I was somewhere else, I need to put a cat in a box.

Live long and Prosper.

[Hawkeye07]

Quite a heavy philosophical question that Craig. There are the two sides as you say. I'm not sure I'd want to go through the pain of losing someone special again... but it would be lovely to have time with them and say all the things I never got to say.

I agree with Mark but then I have another question about the scenerio. How does the clone die? If it's finale is like simply falling asleep, again I would agree with Mark but if it's a more gruesome death I think I would decline the offer.



Hawkeye

[Romulus111VADT]

I know, I know lol

......But having been weaned on classic scifi I'm a bit of a pedant for these things. Good SciFi should have science that is at least vaguely possible by stretching a theory. I can hear Arthur C Clarke turning in his box

As for time paradoxes and quantum thingies, it's time I was somewhere else, I need to put a cat in a box.

Live long and Prosper.

Who's to say? In a couple thousand years it may very well be a possibility? After all, just a few decades ago it was considered impossible to bring people back from the brink of death as the medical community can do today.

Quite a heavy philosophical question that Craig. There are the two sides as you say. I'm not sure I'd want to go through the pain of losing someone special again... but it would be lovely to have time with them and say all the things I never got to say.

I agree with Mark but then I have another question about the scenerio. How does the clone die? If it's finale is like simply falling asleep, again I would agree with Mark but if it's a more gruesome death I think I would decline the offer.



Hawkeye

The clone basically ceases functioning during the night. I believe it says she just fell asleep and could never wake up again.

[Hawkeye07]

Romulus Sez:
"The clone basically ceases functioning during the night. I believe it says she just fell asleep and could never wake up again. "

That being the case now I ask "What would you say to the clone?"
If it were an exact copy of the original including memories, feelings and emotions I think the questions or a discussion would be very different than if the clone was only a physical replica.


Hawkeye

[Fozzer]

Romulus Sez:
"The clone basically ceases functioning during the night. I believe it says she just fell asleep and could never wake up again. "

That being the case now I ask "What would you say to the clone?"
If it were an exact copy of the original including memories, feelings and emotions I think the questions or a discussion would be very different than if the clone was only a physical replica.


Hawkeye

Excellent suggestion Hawk...

Hang on...

I'll just pop down to the bottom at my garden and ask the Fairy Princess if she can help with this baffling problem!... ...!

She will also know if someone really did land on the Moon!... ...!

Paul...in the real world...providing that I keep taking the medication... ... ...!

[Romulus111VADT]

Romulus Sez:
"The clone basically ceases functioning during the night. I believe it says she just fell asleep and could never wake up again. "

That being the case now I ask "What would you say to the clone?"
If it were an exact copy of the original including memories, feelings and emotions I think the questions or a discussion would be very different than if the clone was only a physical replica.


Hawkeye

It's been quite some time since I watched this movie. But I believe it was said that the clones memory was basically programed (for the lack of a better description) to focus on the little boys need to be loved. It was given the memories from the androids memory and it would dote on the boy and treat him as it wanted to be treated; a loved and adored child.

The aliens went to so far as to literally reconstruct an exact replica of the home that they lived in from the androids memories. This was done in the same type of setting scenario that the old Star Trek holodeck would create.

It is rather amazing how certain aspects of science fiction like Star Trek and it techno wonders is so easily accepted. There is no such thing as warp drive or a holodeck and to my recollection; with todays technology no way to build them. Yet people just go with the story line. Then there are other movies in the same style of scifi genres that people can't seem to view in the same way; interesting.

[Hawkeye07]

Romulus sez: "It is rather amazing how certain aspects of science fiction like Star Trek and it techno wonders is so easily accepted. There is no such thing as warp drive or a holodeck and to my recollection; with today's technology no way to build them. Yet people just go with the story line. Then there are other movies in the same style of scifi genres that people can't seem to view in the same way; interesting."

That seems to be very true. And then there's "Planet Of The Apes" Very popular series of movies but I thought the scenario stretched the imagination a bit. After all, if humans virtually annihilated the planet with a nuclear holocaust why weren't the primates and every other living creatures annihilated?


Hawkeye

P.S. Foz, what did the Fairy Princess say about all this? I emailed Tinker Bell too but so far she hasn't replied.

[mustangaroo]

I have to agree with Hawkeye. Until some higher technologies develop please pass the bananas.

[Hagar]

Speaking of "Planet of the Apes" --> http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/29532608