Alive

Am I alive? Yes I am. How do I know that I am alive? Because I feel. Do not disembodied spirits feel? Yes they do, but not pain. Disembodied spirits can feel pain in their own way. I breathe. Machines breathe. Are machines alive? No, they are not. Why? They breathe. It is because they do not think. Computers think. No, computers are programmed into how they think. Are people not programmed into their limited fields of thought, limited to the framework within which their learned language allows? People can learn as they go. As can computers. No, computers are taught what they can learn. Peopl can learn only some things because they are willing to learn them. What makes people more alive than computers? People eat. Machines eat, too. Gasoline is the food of many machines. Living things grow. Automated factories grow more machines out of the raw materials. I can be killed. And thus, are you alive.