If we're on the topic of computers, here's something I read about whilst doing my computing homework:
I think a person is a sentient being. Any being that is able to recognize itself and distinguish itself from others. That's pretty lenient, but I think it's better to have more than enough coverage than not enough. So by my definition, a lion would not be a person because if they see themselves in a mirror, they will attack themselves. BUT, an artificial intelligence would be. A perfect A.I. would look at the world around it and say "Hey, that stuff isn't me." And if there were a whole population of them, they'd likely start calling each other by aliases and develop a language over time, as well as culture. But by my definition, Dolphins are people. So are all primates. Now I don't have a problem in believing that Dolphins are sentient, because they actually do show a lot of signs, but primates I'm not sure about. They are smart, as they make simple tools and whatnot, but they do not develop language, or culture, or anything like that (I don't think). Sentient aliens, sentient robots, and even sentient pools of acid are people, and we are sentient creatures, so we are people. Birds are not (in my opinion).
