Is artificial life support good or bad?
451195
It depends. It allows the body time to heal in some cases. Some are even put in this situation (artificial or induced coma's)by doctors, in those situations its a good thing, beneficial. I suffer from Lupus which can in severe cases cause kidney failure, stroke brain disease etc. I have told my family and have a living will that if i am ever in the situation where there is no hope I do not want to be kept alive by machines. I have 5 kids. I would never want them to spend, or feel obligated to spend their days watching there mother like that. With that said if it were one of my kids on life support I'd probably fight them turning off the machine in desperate hope for the breakthrough or miracle cure. It's a hard question. I guess the answer is both
1176580
You ask: <So is the sanctity of life just a human invention based on self interest to protect itself?>\n\nYes. Probably. It's odd, isn't it that life is sacred for the unborn, but once you're born, you're fit to kill, particularly if you're not American. So, the idea is not a human invention, but probably an American invention (of a particular political group) to advance it's own interests. Like all political principles, this principle is filled with contradictions. Instead of principle, I should have said "slogan".
488449
Not at all, far from it. :) Just learn to play smart not hard. Most people are fearful of their security and fearful of this that and the other, always fearful. There is much good to come from creativity, being unorthodox, and always following universal laws of good. If you help people you will be helped, If you learn the rules of a game you will have more freedom to  know what to do and what not to do, what would make things easier and what would make them harder, life is a network it's not what you know it's who you know. If you're afraid obvious you're going to be fearful and make mistakes, being too afraid of losing the little you have, when you could let go and become a knowledgable risk taker, and have much more to gain from that, but the same amount to lose as the person fearful of security. Once you get your systems set up, everything should go as smooth as pie. Systems. As in automated. A person doesn't have to work to make a computer run. It's automated, once you push the button it runs itself with the electricity. I think if you put all this information I just gave together, somehow you will come across the proper equation right for you in this life. Good luck!
888149
If Earth suppports life, the least you can do is support the earth!\n\nEarth the supporter of LIFE ... LIFE the supporter of YOU!
980679
It is the opinion of some that life on earth would be better if not for science and technology\nYou were not far from the answer though...
24331
AI and robots, etc. would be a boon to society if they could accomplish all the jobs that ordinary people do not want to do or are too dangerous to do.  There will always remain jobs that people like to do such as compose music.  Also many people would have to "manage" the robots to accomplish what is useful to society.  You would have to manage your own personal robot.  A person relieved of all responsibilities for work (in Utopia?) could devote their entire life to learning; but would they study so hard if there were no useful applications for their knowledge because robots cared for all needs?  People also have emotional needs and it is hard to imagine that a robot could substitute for a loving spouse or the family dog.  Those are "jobs" too.
957884
Very thought provoking question! I am suprised that the responses you have received so far have been either negative or incomplete. It does pose a serious problem for conservative minded people. If the creation of a "Frankenstein" embryo by the hands of man is a religious abomination as you postulate, then supporting its existance is an equal abomination. But then comes the right to life issue. So far the responses seem to have been "well, too late to do anything about it". I think those responses are cop outs.\n\nI think that, should God make available to man the technology to perform such acts, then God must want us to be capable of doing it, otherwise he would prevent it.  Interestingly, it calls into question fundamental religious beliefs of whether or not this might be a "test" by God...\n\nI really dont have an off the cuff answer. This has provoked a lot of questions in my mind, and I have to sit back and think about it carefully for awhile. Thanks for the great question.
730891
here is a good  one\n\nhttp://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/AI_RoboForm/roboform.html
578594
depends on if you ask an economist or a sociologist.\n\nthe sociologist will probably say it is bad.\n\nThe economist will probably say it is a good thing.
213372
A machine becoming conscious..., well..., you mean aware of their environment so that they would be able to manipulate it for their own survival..., I think we are far off from someone having enough programming knowledge to do that. Life on this planet has been around for a very long time.., lots of DNA..., choices and options we make everyday like choosing what cloths to wear or what should I have for breakfast..., should I call my mother today etc..., how would you program social behavior like that..., how would you program pain..., love.., joy happiness..., morality...\n\nThere is just no computers strong enough and programmers smart enough to pull that off... Maybe someday but not in my life time... \n\nAccept immortality??? Well..., we being are immortal..., it's only other people that are mortal..., why..., because we only know being alive..., and this exact moment..., we don't know yesterday or tomorrow..., we don't know 10 seconds from now or 10 years from now... If machines could think..., they wouldn't be immortal..., maybe have a better chance of surviving if they knew how..., but always..., there is something out there that has our number whether that be machine or human...
1028400
Back up for life, If you dont mean bringing some one back to life the answer is NO but,\n\nour body or any other living organism will have life support tools that backup and try to prevent massive disaster to life.\n\none such example is your immune system.\n\nand there is a backup mechanism for the heart in case of blocks Heart tries to by pass the blood flow so as to minimise the risk. and only when it is beyond control one gets a cardiac arrest.
1172350
People should not be robots in every aspect of their lives\nbecause we are flesh and blood human beings,not machines,\nno matter how much technology is at our disposal.\nUnfortunately we have been busily creating a mechanical,\ntechnological world we're not really suited for and we call it\nprogress.It's not a surprise if some people are starting to act\nrobotic.
1059573
Sure if you mean a robotic space craft. We could even send a human, if we don't care that he would die shortly. As far as sending a craft with a living human, we don't have that technology within a reasonable price range.
744622
The life support is doing the job of the failing organs.  When it is switched off the body no longer has all the vital jobs being done. The geart would stop when the body became too toxic (in laymans terms!).\nThere are strict guidelines about support being discontinued, several tests have to be done before the doctors can do it..;
428757
Depends. If you are living in Sub-Saharan Africa, then, no, not really. If you are living in Vancouver, life is pretty good. As a whole, that's a pretty broad question. It is better to the extent that modern medicine keeps people alive longer. It's worse because all those people that are living longer cost billions of dollars in tax payer money making it difficult to pay for other much need social services. It's better in that it's easier to make and distribute food. It's worse because we have 190,000,000 people in the US that you could easily call "fat".\n\nIt's all relative.
903992
Artificial consciousness is possible. Is it the same as biological consciousness? No. They are as different as the human body and Robosapien. \n\nI have addressed the issue of morality and artificial consciousness and intelligence and have come to the conclusion that there are no real moral issues to overcome. \n\nThe reason I have come to this conclusion is that biological minds and bodies do not have the ability to be reset or editted, as an artificial counterpart can be. A single machine can be capable of multiple artificial minds. You can swap them around as you desire without affecting the individual minds. At present, that I am aware of, biological minds do not have that ability.\n\nAnother reason is the ability to erase parts of an artificial mind. In a biological mind, you can not erase traumatic events, bad experiences, etc. If you could, shrinks would be out of business. Because of the nature of artificial memory systems, you can, though it can be tedious and a royal pain in the behind, selectively erase memories and experiences that may hinder the artificial mind. The biological mind has to live with them.\n\nIn the end, the ethical treatment of artificial minds will have to be based on very different ideas and morals than the treatment of biological minds. (Afterall, how do you kill something that can have a perfect backup stored in another room? Mortality and the artificial mind is an interesting subject in and of itself.)
651989
I believe that it exists though I cannot say I have seen or experienced one myself.\n\nI would have to say though, that I believe that such miracles are generally NOT associated with people who are literally on their death beds with their doctors saying they will die very shortly.  They generally are not associated with people who are brain-dead or dependent on respirators/ventilators for survival.\n\nToo often it is the case that families insist on maintaining such heroic efforts to keep patients "alive" in the name of holding out for a "miracle".  I have seen this countless numbers of times, and as I have said before, I have NEVER seen such a "miracle" take place.  If everything was free and our resources were endless, then that is fine, but unfortunately this sort of practice costs American society (presuming you are American) MILLIONS of healthcare dollars a year, which is causing a huge strain on our economy.\n\nAgain, I do not doubt that they can occur (both miracles in the strict sense or the word, or whether mind over matter or other methods as previous posters have alluded to) but they are extremely rare.