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to mystic institute.org. Okay, so we're asking the question in this retreat, are we still human?

And I'll kind of a bottom line on that first. Yes, we are still human. We'll get to that in a little while, but

let's go back to the beginning. And I think we need to ask whether we are human beings yet. And if

so, what makes us to be a human being? What is a human being? Small question. And along the same lines,

we can then ask what would make us fully human. Now, biologists have a kind of an answer to this

question, which is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn't go quite far enough. Let me explain why by asking about dogs.

And if you know me, you know I always revert to talking about dogs or other animals.

If you ask someone, what is a dog?

They might say, well, it's a quadruped, has a wagon tail and a wet nose.

Now, if you're biologists, you add some morphological details,

and these days you get down to DNA sequences.

What's wrong with this?

Nothing.

But, I would say it's accurate, but it leaves something out.

Now, even though dogs are indeed quadrupeds, this cutie shown on the slide

did not stop being a dog simply because it lost a leg. And it's not just losses. It's also

true for additions like cats with six fingers, or for that matter, human beings with six fingers.

There's a well-known model of rejection of heart transplants in which you put a second heart into a mouse. So you can take this

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