Science Fiction
In science fiction, an alien, android, robot, hologram, or computer described as sentient (properly sapient) is usually treated as a fully human character, with similar rights, qualities, and capabilities as any other character. Foremost among these properties is human level intelligence (see above), but sentient characters also typically display desire, will, consciousness, ethics, personality, insight, and many other human qualities. Sentience is being used in this context to describe an essential human property that brings all these other qualities with it. The words "self-awareness", and "consciousness" are used in similar ways in science fiction.
Read more about this topic: Sentience
Famous quotes containing the words science and/or fiction:
“The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any obstructions in this way, or open up any new prospect, ought so far to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“If there were genders to genres, fiction would be unquestionably feminine.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)