E. T. is an extraterrestrial visitor who befriends a young boy named Eliot. E. T. learns some English and communicates with the boy, asking for Reecies pieces and wanting to "phone home." He feels pain, makes plans, and communicates emotion. Yet, his physical make-up is very different from his human friend. He is a silicon-based life form (and thus the basic element in his body are not carbon) and his "nervous system" does not have electro-chemical impulses but works through pulses of light.
Does E. T. think or feel? Does he have a mind? Is he a person?
Analyzing E.T. requires us to move beyond carbon based life, which is the biased assumption that consciousness can only exist within biological, carbon-based cells. E.T. is a perfect case study for Functionalism, the theory stating that mental states are defined by their causal roles rather than the physical stuff they are made of. If E.T. 's light-based nervous system processes sensory input and produces emotional output, he possesses a mind regardless of his silicon genetic makeup. This concept is supported by the theory of mind, the idea that the software of the mind can run on different hardware, regardless if the hardware is a wet biological brain or a network of fiber pulses. To test this, we can also use the Turing Test, which suggests that if a subject's responses are indistinguishable from those of a thinking human, we should grant it the status of a thinking being. Because E.T. successfully communicates complex desires, learns a new language, and shares empathetic bonds, he passes a behavioral threshold that points toward genuine mental cognition. Furthermore, his behavior demonstrates basic mind thoughts, such as the capacity for his thoughts to be about things, like his home or his physical pain. While the internal feel of his experiences might be different because they are mediated by photons rather than electrochemical signals, his distress, joy, and emotion suggest he is not a zombie lacking inner life. Ultimately, E.T. meets the criteria for a person described by John Locke, as he is a thinking, intelligent being that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself in different times and places. While his silicon base makes him an extraterrestrial, his capacity for thought and feeling makes him a person.
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