This article is interesting, largely because it talks about views we may come to have, and when looking at those views people are so scared of, the loss of humanity from how we look at one another, I hold them.

I've been chewing on the thoughts of "what's it mean to be human" for quite some time know. The question of purpose, the idea of what feelings are, of what I am when I experience things. The answer I have found to all these questions is just as the article states. We are machines.

Our emotions, feelings, right and wrong, morality, it's pointless. Our lives, pointless as well. No reason left to have mankind on a high ground. The only reason for these things is a supernatural existence, and time and time again those things are proven wrong as well.

This viewpoint kills utilitarianism. It kills religion. It kills what society tells people about morality, and kills our entire idea of purpose and life. When I was a kid I told myself I would do nothing but search for immortality when I stopped belief in god, because I was seeing my views collapse, and I didn't know why I should live without those views.

But this is no reason to throw away progress, to abandon knowledge, because it scares us. No, it's a time to rebuild on something made of stone, not from sand. Mankind is pointless, I am pointless, my life, my experiences, no more special than a rock.

So what?

I haven't been being moral because I view people as more special than a rock. I have been moral because I have empathy. I am a machine, I obey my internal states, the things that drive me, my emotions. And one of those is that when I see pain, my mind emulates it. I hate that, I hate to see pain in others, it hurts me to do so.

I am a machine, selfish and driven by my own goals. Eat, sleep, do well in conversation to feel good about myself, seek reward, avoid pain. OK. That means I have to remember the big picture. Society exists so I can band with a thousand others, and we can work together to accomplish those views for us all. I know that if we abandoned our morality, if we abandon society, it falls apart, and we all lose.

As for my purpose. I don't need one, or I can make one up on my own. Really, did nobody stop to ask "if our purpose is to serve God then what is the purpose of God?" It's a roundabout way of saying "the question doesn't work". The idea of "what is my purpose" is asking something you should answer yourself, not a question about the state of the physical world.

And emotion? Family? Those things matters because we say so, and make it so, in much the same way.

So I view these luddites of the modern era just as I view the past ones. Idiots sticking their heads in the sand to avoid the realities around them. Meanwhile, I, and the rest of the sane world, will be rebuilding society into something that works, and works better and with more knowledge than ever.

Will there be more Nazis? Yes. Will there be tragedy, global warming, perhaps even the end of the human race to machine life? Yes. Just like the Nazis actions were realized, corrected, and learned for generations to come, so will the future mistakes. The benefits will continue to outweigh the negatives, just as they have in the past.

And you will soon find that those who accepted our lack of humanity, how machine-like we really are, soon may come to embrace those things, those emotions, those feelings, in a far more deep and knowledgeable level than those who refused to progress.

And just like we laugh at those who opposed the loom, we will laugh at the Luddites who opposed the progress of our views of humanity.