ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what humanism means, arguing that it must mean more than concern for homo sapiens. If Vulcans, Klingons, and other forms of intelligent life exist, what we call humanism must encompass them as well. Nor actually, this paper argues, can humanism be restricted to organic intelligence. If via some progress in artificial intelligence, non-organic intelligence attains self-consciousness, that embodied self-consciousness too should enjoy the same sanctity and rights as self-consciousness embodied organically. This paper will make these points while taking us through various science fiction accounts drawing on Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Westworld featured on television or in movies. Essentially, the chapter argues that humanism has to do with humane treatment of anything sentient but especially of sentience that attains self-consciousness in whatever form that self-consciousness takes.
