The Brain and Our Humanity

      In the class on Wednesday, we began to discuss the new book. The main question posed was at what point are we determined to be a robot rather than a human. My jerk reaction was that once the the heart is taken away, or has machinery inserted into it, the person ceases to be the way that he or she was. While that is a romantic way of looking at this philosophical question, I'm not sure I could defend this point.
       When I began to think about it, I would consider a pacemaker a piece of machinery. But I don't think I could classify an elderly person who relies on a pacemaker to continue their heart a robot. So what makes a person no longer a person? So if not the heart, the brain? As far as I know, as of now, we cannot replace any part of the brain with a piece of equipment. (Here's an article that I found about this) When a person is determined to be "braindead" they are considered to be gone. They may have equipment allowing their lungs to work and their heart to continue, but once braindead, as far as I have gathered, a person cannot be resuscitated or brought back.
      So is the brain where the consciousness and soul encapsulated? I am leaning towards yes. Honestly, I'm open to being persuaded no, but this is my reasoning right now.
     In Dr. J's philosophical question about the boat, and when does it become the boat again if it replaces the new pieces of the old boat, I think that when 50% of the old boat replaces the new pieces, I think the new boat could then be seen as the old boat because over half of the materials are the old boat. As confusing as that sentence was, I don't think that this can be applied to humans, to add to the confusion. Humans are much different than boats, we have a conscience. I think I would say that when the conscience is gone, the person is then gone. That person is now considered to be artificial intelligence.