Being Alive Enough and Its Impacts on Human Relationships Being alive enough surpasses the standard quality of being an ordinary individual because a person’s life doesn 't qualify one to be alive enough. The human definition of being alive enough depends on how one feels about a closest living object. However, the quality of being alive enough does not depend on bearing life in the real sense. The most significant concern is the semblance that the subject living thing or non-living thing has to do with human beings. In essence, these results are products of illusion. Sherry Turkle discusses this concept in her article, "Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other," by observing how children treat technology
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These relationships determine whether people consider other people or objects as alive enough or not alive enough. At the Citadel, institutional ties bond the cadets as they receive the same education in the elite military college. For this reason, they are closer to one another, and therefore consider each other vital, alive enough, and treat each other with respect. Since women did not receive the same level of education, the cadets recognized them as "others." For example, in a bid to threaten the Knobs, the upperclassmen tell them "We 'll use you like we used those girls" (Faludi 100). Girls did not receive the similar education that was offered to boys who joined the college because they could not get an admission to the college. The absence of institutional ties between the cadets and women made them consider women as "others" who could only be used. They did not view women as alive enough to deserve the respect that they accorded with each other. On the other hand, lack of social ties makes other objects like sociable robots, which do not possess life be, alive enough hence treated humanely. Turkle notes that the sale of Paro, the sociable robot, targeted American nursing homes since "the elderly need a companion robot because of lack of human resources" (Turkle 459). This implies the absence of human resources has weakened the social ties between the elderly and other people. In response to this gap, the elderly develop a healthy relationship with social robots, and they start to consider them alive enough to share with them their emotions and
These relationships determine whether people consider other people or objects as alive enough or not alive enough. At the Citadel, institutional ties bond the cadets as they receive the same education in the elite military college. For this reason, they are closer to one another, and therefore consider each other vital, alive enough, and treat each other with respect. Since women did not receive the same level of education, the cadets recognized them as "others." For example, in a bid to threaten the Knobs, the upperclassmen tell them "We 'll use you like we used those girls" (Faludi 100). Girls did not receive the similar education that was offered to boys who joined the college because they could not get an admission to the college. The absence of institutional ties between the cadets and women made them consider women as "others" who could only be used. They did not view women as alive enough to deserve the respect that they accorded with each other. On the other hand, lack of social ties makes other objects like sociable robots, which do not possess life be, alive enough hence treated humanely. Turkle notes that the sale of Paro, the sociable robot, targeted American nursing homes since "the elderly need a companion robot because of lack of human resources" (Turkle 459). This implies the absence of human resources has weakened the social ties between the elderly and other people. In response to this gap, the elderly develop a healthy relationship with social robots, and they start to consider them alive enough to share with them their emotions and