How do you Program a Human? 

*Lain/Eva possible spoilers**
What does it mean to be Human? People define this in different ways, but I've always put emphasis on 2 things when answering this. Emotional capacity and dealing with problems. And the truth is, based on these two things, we can characterize people as more and less human. I want you to give me your full attention now, and answer me this: What makes you different from a robot? Think generally at first, but then think more regarding problem solving. If you can't think of THE answer, of AN answer, i'll give you mine. Although we as people have different archetypes, we are capable of viewing and understanding other viewpoints. Computers only understand what they are programmed to understand. Unless you start to think a bit more. Let's really examine what a person, and a computer are. A highly discussed question that has always piqued my interest has been: What would happen if someone were born and raised in an isolated environment without outside influence? We have horrible cases of abuse and neglect in which such thought experiments were answered. These are known as feral children. The results of which are no language acquisition, and huge hits on psychological development. To me, it makes total sense. If given nothing, nothing will be produced. So, let's stretch that hypothesis. If such an experiment were to be conducted in a controlled environment, but the patient was given one idea from birth. One program, so to speak. Is it not logical to assume that changing this one idea further in development sounds basically impossible? If we take a case like Genie’s, a feral child who after suffering a childhood with little to no connection to the outside world as a result of severe negelct and abuse, was studied for her linguistic and psychological development.
Even through much learning and testing, Genie was unable to fully truly aquire a first language. Moreover, showing that, such damage is essentially irreversable. This was her program. A program which she never stepped out of boundaries of. Just like computers, we are blank canvases which are capable of being limited in our beliefs, actions and capabilities if in the right set of circumstances. At our core, we would all be robots if it werent for emotional reaponses. Specifically to problems. We naturally react spontaneously when problems arise, as we are driven by our emotions. When angered we dont think clearly. Much like when water boils, we cant see our reflections. This leads to poor decision making, which leads to errors. Errors that werent meant to be errors. Errors that are unpredictable and arise as a result of an impulsive reaction. Thats where the line is drawn in the sand. You can program a reaction, but you then have to program the outcome. We dont know the outcome. Atleast not for sure. If you want to program a human, you need a robot with a full understanding of the human brain. Then the ai will seem more human than us. And we will seem more robotic than the ai.
Footage:
@wilsonlovesu
Serial Experiments Lain
End of Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion
mainländers
Music:
Yume Nikki OST: Snow World