At 04:52 PM 9/15/1997 -0600, David Johnston wrote:

Shazorn wrote:

On Sun, 14 Sep 1997, Addison Godel wrote:

Chris Davies writes:

    The problem is, Gary, that the real nature of the Monsters of the
Day can be summed up in the name given to the version in the Black Moon
arc.

    Droid.  As in "android".  As in, artificially created being,
resembling humanity, but *NOT* alive as we understand life.

<snip>

        I'm trying to read a huge stack of back messages, so I'm not sure
whether this point will have been replied to by someone else.  If so, gomen.
But it strikes me that this is precisely the question taken up in "Ghost
in the Shell", ne?

Very possibly.  But it's not a question that can be answered in
general terms.  The standard youma and droids are usually 
conceptualised as disposa-troops with no free will, no capacity 
to feel anything except a certain amount of sadistic pleasure,
and a fairly pre-programmed set of responses.  As such, wackin'
em isn't a big deal since they are only tools, about on a par with
your basic average boomer from BGC.  Their controllers on the other
hand, and warriors such as the Seven Shadows, and whatsername, 
the water chick, are a whole different ball of wax.

This reminds me of that part of "Misconceptions" where Usagi refuses to
consider an abortion because "she can't take a life", and I just thought
"what if she has to fight a pregnant youma?"