---
title: 'dreaming of electronic sheep'
url: 'https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/dreaming-of-electronic-sheep'
markdown: 'https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/dreaming-of-electronic-sheep.md'
date: '2003-12-05'
description: 'I was looking at my friend Andrew’s site. And, I read that post of his about a mechanical hippocampus. And the fact that it was implanted successfully back into a living organism. It so brings the ethics of defining sentience to mind. I buy that we are not this crude matter, but how is our carbon b…'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - Journal
  tag:
    - design
---

# dreaming of electronic sheep

## [dreaming of electronic sheep](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/dreaming-of-electronic-sheep)

    5th Dec 2003   [design](https://stevenjaycohen.com/tag:design#body-wrapper)  

I was looking at my friend [Andrew’s](https://web.archive.org/web/20041205140517/https://paradigmpusher.com:80/index.php?p=2&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) site. And, I read that post of his about a mechanical hippocampus. And the fact that it was implanted successfully back into a living organism.

It so brings the ethics of defining sentience to mind. I buy that we are [not this crude matter](https://web.archive.org/web/20041205160703/https://www.theforce.net:80/rouser/essays/castaneda08.shtml), but how is our carbon body tied to our innate luminescence? How much can we append? dillute? substitute? before we are no longer ourselves.

Darth Vader or [Nick Chopper](https://www.halcyon.com/piglet/ozites/oz0394.htm)? Which is it? Where is the line?

Is there a line? Are my thoughts limited by searching for a boundary?

I have touched a tree and a stone and felt its presence. I have patted a car on the dashboard and asked her to please make it over a hill, but did I really *feel* \[her? it?\] there? Was I externalizing?

I just don’t know.

 [ Previous Post](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/the-mating-habits-of-an-urban-heterosexual-and-other-business) [Next Post ](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/a-winter-moon)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [My Journal](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal.md)
- Previous: [a winter moon](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/a-winter-moon.md)
- Next: [The Mating Habits of an Urban Heterosexual and Other Business](https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/the-mating-habits-of-an-urban-heterosexual-and-other-business.md)