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96-968: Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books , the character has made appearances in Marvel titles for over four decades, and also appeared in Marvel-related products including animated television series and trading cards . The Awesome Android debuted in Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963) as the creation of the Mad Thinker . "Since then, [the Mad Thinker] and his 15-foot-tall (4.6 m) artificial being ... have had run-ins with most of Marvel's major superheroes. The pair reappeared in Fantastic Four #28 (July 1964) to battle both

192-635: A Silver Age pastiche in his Kapten Stofil comic book series (1998–2009) about the powers of nostalgia in a grumpy, old comic book named Captain Geezer who longs to return to the Silver Age. Lindengren also borrows many elements from Silver Age comics in United States of Banana , a comic book he created with Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi . Arlen Schumer, author of The Silver Age of Comic Book Art , singles out Carmine Infantino 's Flash as

288-593: A brief appearance in Exiles vol. 2 #4 (Sept. 2009). The Awesome Android was created by the Mad Thinker using Mister Fantastic 's research, incorporating ape DNA and unstable molecules into an almost indestructible body with a microcomputer and a solar-power source. It battles the Fantastic Four and the mutant team the X-Men before being deactivated by X-Men leader Professor X . The Thinker directs

384-514: A cinematic approach at times that occasionally altered the more conventional panel-based format that had been commonplace for decades. Adams' breakthrough was based on layout and rendering. Best known for returning Batman to his somber roots after the campy success of the Batman television show, his naturalistic depictions of anatomy, faces, and gestures changed comics' style in a way that Strausbaugh sees reflected in modern graphic novels. One of

480-546: A conscious individual are known as qualia in Western philosophy . "Sentience" was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin sentiens (feeling). In philosophy, different authors draw different distinctions between consciousness and sentience. According to Antonio Damasio , sentience is a minimalistic way of defining consciousness, which otherwise commonly and collectively describes sentience plus further features of

576-506: A copy in the best condition known of Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), the debut of Spider-Man , selling for $ 1.1 million in 2011. In 2022, a copy of Fantastic Four #1 sold for $ 1.5 million. Comics historian and movie producer Michael Uslan traces the origin of the "Silver Age" term to the letters column of Justice League of America #42 (February 1966), which went on sale December 9, 1965. Letter-writer Scott Taylor of Westport, Connecticut, wrote: "If you guys keep bringing back

672-486: A lifelong science-fiction fan, was the inspiration for the re-imagined Green Lantern —the Golden Age character, railroad engineer Alan Scott , possessed a ring powered by a magical lantern, but his Silver Age replacement, test pilot Hal Jordan , had a ring powered by an alien battery and created by an intergalactic police force. In the mid-1960s, DC established that characters appearing in comics published prior to

768-495: A lot less happy." Strausbaugh writes that the Silver Age "went out with that whimper". Comics scholar Arnold T. Blumberg places the end of the Silver Age in June 1973, when Gwen Stacy , girlfriend of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), was killed in a story arc later dubbed " The Night Gwen Stacy Died ", saying the era of "innocence" was ended by "the 'snap' heard round the comic book world—the startling, sickening snap of bone that heralded

864-487: A machine conscious in exactly the way humans are is not one that we are equipped to take on." Indeed, leading AI textbooks do not mention "sentience" at all. Digital sentience is of considerable interest to the philosophy of mind . Functionalist philosophers consider that sentience is about "causal roles" played by mental states, which involve information processing. In this view, the physical substrate of this information processing does not need to be biological, so there

960-431: A message of acceptance of those who are different". Although its characters have inspired a number of nostalgic films and ranges of merchandise, Harvey comics of the period are not nearly as sought after in the collectors' market in contrast to DC and Marvel titles. The publishers Gilberton , Dell Comics , and Gold Key Comics used their reputations as publishers of wholesome comic books to avoid becoming signatories to

1056-460: A rise in juvenile crime statistics, although this rise was shown to be in direct proportion to population growth. When juvenile offenders admitted to reading comics, it was seized on as a common denominator; one notable critic was Fredric Wertham , author of the book Seduction of the Innocent (1954), who attempted to shift the blame for juvenile delinquency from the parents of the children to

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1152-504: A superhero team book, resulting in The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961). Under the guidance of writer-editor Stan Lee and artists/co-plotters such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko , Marvel began its own rise to prominence. With an innovation that changed the comic-book industry, The Fantastic Four #1 initiated a naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons, who squabbled and worried about

1248-554: A team consisting of the company's most popular superhero characters. Martin Goodman , a publishing trend-follower with his 1950s Atlas Comics line, by this time called Marvel Comics , "mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The [sic] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes", Marvel editor Stan Lee recalled in 1974. Goodman directed Lee to likewise produce

1344-670: A time) after touching an opponent, such as the Thing 's rock-like skin or Iceman 's frost coating. It can also emit close-range blasts of gale-force wind from its mouth. The Android is given one weakness by the Thinker: a collection of nerve ganglia underneath its arms that will deactivate it if struck. An alternate version of the Awesome Android named Bobby Burchill appears in Ultimate Fantastic Four . He

1440-628: Is concerned that AI sentience would be particularly easy to deny, and that if achieved, humans might nevertheless continue to treat AI systems as mere tools. He notes that the linguistic behaviour of LLMs is not a reliable way to assess whether they are sentient. He suggests to apply theories of consciousness, such as the global workspace theory , to the algorithms implicitly learned by LLMs, but noted that this technique requires advances in AI interpretability to understand what happens inside. He also mentions some other pathways that may lead to AI sentience, such as

1536-494: Is entitled, at a minimum, to protection from unnecessary suffering , though animal-rights advocates may differ on what rights (e.g., the right to life) may be entailed by simple sentience. Sentiocentrism describes the theory that sentient individuals are the center of moral concern. Gary Francione also bases his abolitionist theory of animal rights, which differs significantly from Singer's , on sentience. He asserts that, "All sentient beings, humans or nonhuman, have one right:

1632-443: Is no theoretical barrier to the possibility of sentient machines. According to type physicalism however, the physical constitution is important; and depending on the types of physical systems required for sentience, it may or may not be possible for certain types of machines (such as electronic computing devices) to be sentient. The discussion on the topic of alleged sentience of artificial intelligence has been reignited in 2022 by

1728-560: Is not a meaningful concept. Regarding animal consciousness , the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness , publicly proclaimed on 7 July 2012 at Cambridge University, states that many non-human animals possess the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states, and can exhibit intentional behaviors. The declaration notes that all vertebrates (including fish and reptiles) have this neurological substrate for consciousness, and that there

1824-422: Is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" Richard D. Ryder defines sentientism broadly as the position according to which an entity has moral status if and only if it is sentient. In David Chalmer's more specific terminology, Bentham is a narrow sentientist , since his criterion for moral status is not only the ability to experience any phenomenal consciousness at all, but specifically

1920-402: Is related to the concept of ahimsa , non-violence toward other beings. In some forms of Buddhism, plants, stones and other inanimate objects are considered to be 'sentient'. In Jainism many things are endowed with a soul, jīva , which is sometimes translated as 'sentience'. Some things are without a soul, ajīva , such as a chair or spoon. There are different rankings of jīva based on

2016-467: Is strong evidence that many invertebrates also have it. David Chalmers argues that sentience is sometimes used as shorthand for phenomenal consciousness , the capacity to have any subjective experience at all, but sometimes refers to the narrower concept of affective consciousness , the capacity to experience subjective states that have affective valence (i.e., a positive or negative character), such as pain and pleasure. The sentience quotient concept

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2112-562: Is the younger brother and slave of Rhona Burchill . The Awesome Android appears in JLA/Avengers #4 as a brainwashed minion of Krona . The Awesome Android appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #2. Silver Age of Comic Books The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and widespread commercial success in mainstream American comic books , predominantly those featuring

2208-429: Is whether the way these noxious stimuli are processed within the brain leads to a subjective experience of pain. To address that, researchers often look for behavioral cues. For example, "if a dog with an injured paw whimpers, licks the wound, limps, lowers pressure on the paw while walking, learns to avoid the place where the injury happened and seeks out analgesics when offered, we have reasonable grounds to assume that

2304-669: The Acts of Vengeance storyline in Avengers Spotlight #27 (Mid-Dec. 1989); battled several Marvel heroes in Thunderbolts #2 (June 1997) and Heroes for Hire #1 (July 1997) and had two further encounters with the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four vol. 3, #23 (Nov. 1999) and #43-44 (July-Aug. 2001). The Android was reclaimed and upgraded by the Thinker in a humorous storyline in the 2004–2005 series She-Hulk ; and made

2400-654: The Comet and Flygirl . Their stories blended typical superhero fare with the 1960s camp. Among straightforward Silver Age superheroes from publishers other than Marvel or DC, Charlton Comics offered a short-lived superhero line with characters that included Captain Atom , Judomaster , the Question , and Thunderbolt ; Tower Comics had Dynamo, Mercury Man, NoMan and other members of the superhero espionage group T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents ; and even Gold Key had Doctor Solar, Man of

2496-655: The Comics Code Authority to regulate comic content. In the wake of these changes, publishers began introducing superhero stories again, a change that began with the introduction of a new version of DC Comics ' The Flash in Showcase #4 (October 1956). In response to strong demand, DC began publishing more superhero titles including Justice League of America , which prompted Marvel Comics to follow suit beginning with The Fantastic Four #1. A number of important comics writers and artists contributed to

2592-515: The Golden Age as the Silver Age began, largely due to their creator's ongoing affection for them. Jacobs describes the arrival of Showcase #4 on the newsstands as "begging to be bought", the cover featured an undulating film strip depicting the Flash running so fast that he had escaped from the frame. Editor Julius Schwartz , writer Gardner Fox , and artist Carmine Infantino were some of

2688-494: The Hulk during a time period of social upheaval and the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s . Comic books of the Silver Age explained superhero phenomena and origins through science, inspired by contemporary science fiction , as opposed to the Golden Age , which commonly relied on magic or mysticism . Comics historian Peter Sanderson compares the 1960s DC to a large Hollywood studio, and argues that after having reinvented

2784-463: The Justice League of America . The DC artists responsible included Murphy Anderson , Gil Kane , Ramona Fradon , Mike Sekowsky , and Joe Kubert . Only the characters' names remained the same; their costumes, locales, and identities were altered, and imaginative scientific explanations for their superpowers generally took the place of magic as a modus operandi in their stories. Schwartz,

2880-598: The Martian Manhunter in Detective Comics #225 predates Showcase #4 by almost a year, and at least one historian considers this character the first Silver Age superhero. However, comics historian Craig Shutt, author of the Comics Buyer's Guide column "Ask Mister Silver Age", disagrees, noting that the Martian Manhunter debuted as a detective who used his alien abilities to solve crimes, in

2976-972: The Phantom Lady ; Strong Man, published by Magazine Enterprises in 1955; Charlton Comics ' Nature Boy , introduced in March 1956, and its revival of the Blue Beetle the previous year; and Atlas Comics' short-lived revivals of Captain America, the Human Torch , and the Sub-Mariner , beginning in Young Men Comics #24 (December 1953). In the United Kingdom, the Marvelman series was published from 1954 to 1963, substituting for

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3072-702: The Werewolf . Gold Key did licensed versions of live-action and animated superhero television shows such as Captain Nice , Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles , and continued the adventures of Walt Disney Pictures ' Goofy character in Supergoof . American Comics Group gave its established character Herbie a secret superhero identity as the Fat Fury , and introduced the characters of Nemesis and Magic-Man. Even

3168-466: The brain emulation of sentient animals. a. Quote: "The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing

3264-402: The mind and consciousness, such as creativity , intelligence , sapience , self-awareness , and intentionality (the ability to have thoughts about something). These further features of consciousness may not be necessary for sentience, which is the capacity to feel sensations and emotions. According to Thomas Nagel in his paper " What Is It Like to Be a Bat? ", consciousness can refer to

3360-610: The superhero archetype . Following the Golden Age of Comic Books , the Silver Age is considered to cover the period from 1956 to 1970, and was succeeded by the Bronze Age . The popularity and circulation of comic books about superheroes had declined following World War II , and comic books about horror, crime and romance took larger shares of the market. However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency , focusing in particular on crime, horror, and superheroes. In 1954, publishers implemented

3456-544: The "quirky detective" vein of contemporaneous DC characters who were "TV detectives, Indian detectives, supernatural detectives, [and] animal detectives". Shutt feels the Martian Manhunter only became a superhero in Detective Comics #273 (November 1959) when he received a secret identity and other superhero accoutrements, saying, "Had Flash not come along, I doubt that the Martian Manhunter would've led

3552-468: The AI system excels at this, providing answers to challenging topics about the nature of emotions , generating Aesop -style fables on cue, and even describing its alleged fears. Nick Bostrom considers that while LaMDA is probably not sentient, being very sure of it would require understanding how consciousness works, having access to unpublished information about LaMDA's architecture, and finding how to apply

3648-654: The Android to kidnap industrialist Tony Stark, which eventually leads to a battle with Stark's alter ego Iron Man . After an appearance during the "War of the Super Villains" storyline the Android is absent from Marvel continuity until directed by the Thinker to capture the Galadorian spaceknight Rom for further study. After a brief battle, Rom successfully deactivates the Android. The Android battles Captain America , having been repaired by then abandoned by

3744-447: The Atom . According to John Strausbaugh of The New York Times , "traditional" comic book historians feel that although the Silver Age deserves study, the only noteworthy aspect of the Silver Age was the advent of underground comics. One commentator has suggested that, "Perhaps one of the reasons underground comics have come to be considered legitimate art is due to the fact that the work of these artists more truly embodies what much of

3840-603: The Bold #28 (Feb. 1960) before going on to its own title. Film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan later contradicted some specifics, while supporting the story's framework: Irwin said he never played golf with Goodman, so the story is untrue. I heard this story more than a couple of times while sitting in the lunchroom at DC's 909 Third Avenue and 75 Rockefeller Plaza office as Sol Harrison and [production chief] Jack Adler were schmoozing with some of us ... who worked for DC during our college summers. ... [T]he way I heard

3936-528: The British reprints of the Captain Marvel stories after Fawcett stopped publishing the character's adventures. The talking animal superheroes Supermouse and Mighty Mouse were published continuously in their own titles from the end of the Golden Age through the beginning of the Silver Age. Atomic Mouse was given his own title in 1953, lasting ten years. Atomic Rabbit, later named Atomic Bunny,

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4032-474: The Comics Code and found various ways to continue publishing horror-themed comics in addition to other types. Gilberton's extensive Classics Illustrated line adapted literary classics, with the likes of Frankenstein alongside Don Quixote and Oliver Twist ; Classics Illustrated Junior reprinted comic book versions of children's classics such as The Wizard of Oz , Rapunzel , and Pinocchio . During

4128-573: The EU and its member states to "pay full regards to the welfare requirements of animals". Nociception is the process by which the nervous system detects and responds to potentially harmful stimuli, leading to the sensation of pain . It involves specialized receptors called nociceptors that sense damage or threat and send signals to the brain. Nociception is widespread among animals, even among insects. The presence of nociception indicates an organism's ability to detect harmful stimuli. A further question

4224-529: The Fantastic Four, the Android is reclaimed by the Thinker. The Thinker upgrades the Android to absorb additional abilities, which inadvertently gives him sentience . Subsequently, he rebels against the Thinker and joins Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, the law firm that employs Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk . However, he eventually returns to the Mad Thinker after being rejected by his coworker Mallory Book . In subsequent appearances, he accompanies

4320-543: The James Bond-style spy stories, introducing the vortex beam (which lifts objects), the aphonic bomb (which explodes silently), a miniature electronic absorber (which protected Fury from electricity), and the Q-ray machine (a molecular disintegrator)—all in his first 11-page story. The following comics are sought after by collectors due to their historic significance. A near-mint-plus copy of Amazing Fantasy #15,

4416-604: The Mad Thinker in his schemes before eventually joining Iron Man's A.I. Army . The Awesome Android is created when the Mad Thinker steals and uses a technique invented by Mister Fantastic, involving splicing unstable molecules into the DNA patterns of an ape. It has limited artificial intelligence and no capacity for self-motivated activity, and is totally dependent on its programming or the programmer's spoken commands, and usually deactivates itself when inactive. The Android has inhuman physical attributes and can mimic an ability (one at

4512-471: The Palais de Louvre in 1967, and books were soon published that contained serious discussions of the art of comics and the nature of the medium. In January 1966, a live-action Batman television show debuted to high ratings. Circulation for comic books in general and Batman merchandise in particular soared. Other masked or superpowered adventurers appeared on the television screen, so that "American TV in

4608-406: The Silver Age lived on a parallel Earth the company dubbed Earth-Two . Characters introduced in the Silver Age and onward lived on Earth-One . The two realities were separated by a vibrational field that could be crossed, should a storyline involve superheroes from different worlds teaming up. Although the Flash is generally regarded as the first superhero of the Silver Age, the introduction of

4704-697: The Thinker. Fellow artificial creation the Super-Adaptoid , posing as villain the Fixer , reprograms the Android and uses it as part of an assault team of advanced robots called Heavy Metal, consisting of the Awesome Android; Machine Man ; the Sentry 459 , and TESS-One . The group is eventually defeated by the Avengers with Namor the Sub-Mariner deactivating the Android by ripping off its head while in

4800-648: The ability of any entity to have subjective perceptual experiences, or as some philosophers refer to them, " qualia "—in other words, the ability to have states that it feels like something to be in. Some philosophers, notably Colin McGinn , believe that the physical process causing consciousness to happen will never be understood, a position known as " new mysterianism ". They do not deny that most other aspects of consciousness are subject to scientific investigation but they argue that qualia will never be explained. Other philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett , argue that qualia

4896-486: The ability to experience conscious states with negative affective valence (i.e. suffering). Animal welfare and rights advocates often invoke similar capacities. For example, the documentary Earthlings argues that while animals do not have all the desires and ability to comprehend as do humans, they do share the desires for food and water, shelter and companionship, freedom of movement and avoidance of pain. Animal-welfare advocates typically argue that any sentient being

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4992-471: The absence of a direct equivalent of the neocortex in their brain, was used as an argument against sentience. Jennifer Jacquet suggests that the belief that fish do not feel pain originated in response to a 1980s policy aimed at banning catch and release . The range of animals regarded by scientists as sentient or conscious has progressively widened, now including animals such as fish, lobsters and octopus. Digital sentience (or artificial sentience) means

5088-628: The artist left to join DC Comics ; this combines with DC's Superman #229 (August 1970), editor Mort Weisinger 's last before retiring. According to historian Peter Sanderson, the "neo-silver movement" that began in 1986 with Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by Alan Moore and Curt Swan , was a backlash against the Bronze Age with a return to Silver Age principles. In Sanderson's opinion, each comics generation rebels against

5184-580: The basic right not to be treated as the property of others." Andrew Linzey , a British theologian , considers that Christianity should regard sentient animals according to their intrinsic worth, rather than their utility to humans. In 1997 the concept of animal sentience was written into the basic law of the European Union. The legally binding protocol annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam recognises that animals are "sentient beings", and requires

5280-464: The best-known pop art painters, specifically chose individual panels from comic books and repainted the images, modifying them to some extent in the process but including in the painting word and thought balloons and captions as well as enlarged-to-scale color dots imitating the coloring process then used in newsprint comic books. An exhibition of comic strip art was held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of

5376-519: The character] Conan and monsters [in the wake of the Comics Code allowing vampires, werewolves and the like]—were on firm ground by this time." He also dismisses the end of the 12-cent comic book, which went to 15 cents as the industry standard in early 1969, noting that the 1962 hike from 10 cents to 12 cents had no bearing in this regard. Shutt's line comes with Fantastic Four #102 (September 1970), Jack Kirby 's last regular-run issue before

5472-774: The charge from his backup position in Detective to a new super-hero age." Unsuccessful attempts to revive the superhero archetype's popularity include Captain Comet , who debuted in Strange Adventures #9 (June 1951); St. John Publishing Company's 1953 revival of Rocket Man under the title Zip-Jet; Fighting American , created in 1954 by the Captain America team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ; Sterling Comics ' Captain Flash and its backup feature Tomboy that same year; Ajax/Farrell Publishing's 1954–55 revival of

5568-489: The claims made about Google 's LaMDA ( Language Model for Dialogue Applications) artificial intelligence system that it is "sentient" and had a " soul ". LaMDA is an artificial intelligence system that creates chatbots —AI robots designed to communicate with humans—by gathering vast amounts of text from the internet and using algorithms to respond to queries in the most fluid and natural way possible. The transcripts of conversations between scientists and LaMDA reveal that

5664-617: The comic books they read. The result was a decline in the comics industry. To address public concerns, in 1954 the Comics Code Authority was created to regulate and curb violence in comics, marking the start of a new era. The Silver Age began with the publication of DC Comics' Showcase #4 (October 1956), which introduced the modern version of the Flash. At the time, only three superheroes— Superman (and his younger incarnation as Superboy ), Batman (with his sidekick Robin ), and Wonder Woman —were still published under their own titles. According to DC comics writer Will Jacobs , Superman

5760-589: The concept is related to the Bodhisattva , an enlightened being devoted to the liberation of others. The first vow of a Bodhisattva states, "Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to free them." Sentience has been a central concept in the animal rights movement, tracing back to the well-known writing of Jeremy Bentham in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation : "The question

5856-557: The counterculture movement of the time. The Silver Age of comic books was followed by the Bronze Age. The demarcation is not clearly defined, but there are a number of possibilities. Historian Will Jacobs suggests the Silver Age ended in April 1970 when the man who had started it, Julius Schwartz, handed over Green Lantern —starring one of the first revived heroes of the era—to the new-guard team of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams in response to reduced sales. John Strausbaugh also connects

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5952-412: The death of Gwen Stacy." Silver Age historian Craig Shutt disputes this, saying, "Gwen Stacy's death shocked Spider-Man readers. Such a tragedy makes a strong symbolic ending. This theory gained adherents when Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross 's Marvels miniseries in 1994 ended with Gwen's death, but I'm not buying it. It's too late. Too many new directions—especially [the sword-and-sorcery trend begun by

6048-523: The decades and would have gotten this story straight from the horse's mouth. Sentience Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. It may not necessarily imply higher cognitive functions such as awareness , reasoning , or complex thought processes. Sentience is an important concept in ethics , as the ability to experience happiness or suffering often forms a basis for determining which entities deserve moral consideration , particularly in utilitarianism . In Asian religions,

6144-715: The dog is indeed experiencing something unpleasant." Avoiding painful stimuli unless the reward is significant can also provide evidence that pain avoidance is not merely an unconscious reflex (similarly to how humans "can choose to press a hot door handle to escape a burning building"). Animals such as pigs , chickens , and fish are typically recognized as sentient. There is more uncertainty regarding insects , and findings on certain insect species may not be applicable to others. Historically, fish were not considered sentient, and their behaviors were often viewed as "reflexes or complex, unconscious species-typical responses" to their environment. Their dissimilarity with humans, including

6240-577: The early part of the era, including writers Stan Lee , Gardner Fox , John Broome , and Robert Kanigher , and artists Curt Swan , Jack Kirby , Gil Kane , Steve Ditko , Mike Sekowsky , Gene Colan , Carmine Infantino , John Buscema , and John Romita Sr. By the end of the Silver Age, a new generation of talent had entered the field, including writers Denny O'Neil , Gary Friedrich , Roy Thomas , and Archie Goodwin , and artists such as Neal Adams , Herb Trimpe , Jim Steranko , and Barry Windsor-Smith . Silver Age comics have become collectible , with

6336-504: The embodiment of the design of the era: "as sleek and streamlined as the fins Detroit was sporting on all its models". Other notable pencilers of the era include Curt Swan , Gene Colan , Steve Ditko , Gil Kane , Jack Kirby , Joe Kubert , Don Heck , George Tuska , Dick Ayers , and John Romita Sr. Two artists that changed the comics industry dramatically in the late 1960s were Neal Adams , considered one of his country's greatest draftsmen, and Jim Steranko . Both artists expressed

6432-450: The end of the Silver Age to Green Lantern. He observes that in 1960, the character embodied the can-do optimism of the era. However, by 1972 Green Lantern had become world-weary, with the character saying in one story, "Those days are gone—gone forever—the days I was confident, certain ... I was so young ... so sure I couldn't make a mistake! Young and cocky, that was Green Lantern. Well, I've changed. I'm older now ... maybe wiser, too ... and

6528-562: The few writer-artists at the time, Steranko made use of a cinematic style of storytelling. Strausbaugh credits him as one of Marvel's strongest creative forces during the late 1960s, his art owing a large debt to Salvador Dalí . Steranko started by inking and penciling the details of Kirby's artwork on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. beginning in Strange Tales #151, but by Strange Tales #155 Stan Lee had put him in charge of both writing and drawing Fury's adventures. He exaggerated

6624-553: The first appearance of Spider-Man, sold for $ 1.1 million to an unnamed collector on March 7, 2011. ^ Apocryphal legend has it that in 1961, Timely and Atlas publisher Martin Goodman was playing golf with either Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of rival DC Comics (then known as National Periodical Publications), who bragged about DC's success with the Justice League of America , which had debuted in The Brave and

6720-516: The future. One of the few most-selling American comics publishers in 1956, Harvey Comics , discontinued its horror comics when the Comics Code was implemented and sought a new target audience. Harvey's focus shifted to children from 6 to 12 years of age, especially girls, with characters such as Richie Rich , Casper the Friendly Ghost , and Little Dot . Many of the company's comics featured young girls who "defied stereotypes and sent

6816-515: The heroes from the [1930s–1940s] Golden Age, people 20 years from now will be calling this decade the Silver Sixties!" According to Uslan, the natural hierarchy of gold-silver-bronze, as in Olympic medals, took hold: "Fans immediately glommed onto this, refining it more directly into a Silver Age version of the Golden Age. Very soon, it was in our vernacular, replacing such expressions as ... 'Second Heroic Age of Comics' or 'The Modern Age' of comics. It wasn't long before dealers were ... specifying it

6912-661: The iconic Archie Comics teens acquired super powers and superhero identities in comedic titles such as Archie as Capt. Pureheart and Jughead as Captain Hero . Archie Comics also launched its Archie Adventure line (subsequently titled Mighty Comics ), which included the Fly , the Jaguar , and a revamp of the Golden Age hero the Shield . In addition to their individual titles, they teamed in their group series The Mighty Crusaders , joined by

7008-548: The late 1950s and the 1960s, Dell, which had published comics in 1936, offered licensed TV series comic books from Twilight Zone to Top Cat , as well as numerous Walt Disney titles. Its successor, Gold Key—founded in 1962 after Western Publishing started its own label rather than packaging content for business partner Dell—continued with such licensed TV series and movie adaptations, as well as comics starring such Warner Bros. Cartoons characters as Bugs Bunny and such comic strip properties as Beetle Bailey . With

7104-401: The likes of rent-money. In contrast to the straitlaced archetypes of superheroes at the time, this ushered in a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, and others complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style became popular among college students who could identify with the angst and the irreverent nature of the characters such as Spider-Man , the X-Men and

7200-401: The neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates." b. Quote: "Granted, these animals do not have all the desires we humans have; granted, they do not comprehend everything we humans comprehend; nevertheless, we and they do have some of

7296-615: The number of senses it has. Water, for example, is a sentient being of the first order, as it is considered to possess only one sense, that of touch. Sentience in Buddhism is the state of having senses. In Buddhism, there are six senses, the sixth being the subjective experience of the mind. Sentience is simply awareness prior to the arising of Skandha . Thus, an animal qualifies as a sentient being. According to Buddhism, sentient beings made of pure consciousness are possible. In Mahayana Buddhism, which includes Zen and Tibetan Buddhism ,

7392-521: The people behind the Flash's revitalization. Robert Kanigher wrote the first stories of the revived Flash, and John Broome was the writer of many of the earliest stories. With the success of Showcase #4, several other 1940s superheroes were reworked during Schwartz' tenure, including Green Lantern , Aquaman , the Atom , and Hawkman , and the Justice Society of America was reimagined as

7488-480: The philosophical theory to the machine. He also said about LLMs that "it's not doing them justice to say they're simply regurgitating text", noting that they "exhibit glimpses of creativity, insight and understanding that are quite impressive and may show the rudiments of reasoning". He thinks that "sentience is a matter of degree". In 2022, philosopher David Chalmers made a speech on whether large language models (LLMs) can be conscious, encouraging more research on

7584-497: The popularity of the Batman television show in 1966, publishers that had specialized in other forms began adding campy superhero titles to their lines. As well, new publishers sprang up, often using creative talent from the Golden Age. Harvey Comics ' Harvey Thriller imprint released Double-Dare Adventures , starring new characters such as Bee-Man and Magicmaster. Dell published superhero versions of Frankenstein , Dracula and

7680-409: The previous, and the movement was a response to Crisis on Infinite Earths , which itself was an attack on the Silver Age. Neo-silver comics creators made comics that recognized and assimilated the more sophisticated aspects of the Silver Age. The Silver Age marked a decline in horror, crime, romance, talking animal humor, and Westerns as American-comics genres. An important feature of the period

7776-612: The public believes is true of newspaper strips—that they are written and drawn (i.e., authentically signed by) a single person." While a large number of mainstream-comics professionals both wrote and drew their own material during the Silver Age, as many had since the start of American comic books , their work is distinct from what another historian describes as the "raw id on paper" of Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton . Most often published in black-and-white with glossy color cover and distributed through counterculture bookstores and head shops, underground comics targeted adults and reflected

7872-704: The sentience of artificial intelligences . The question of whether artificial intelligences can be sentient is controversial. The AI research community does not consider sentience (that is, the "ability to feel sensations") as an important research goal, unless it can be shown that consciously "feeling" a sensation can make a machine more intelligent than just receiving input from sensors and processing it as information. Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig wrote in 2021: "We are interested in programs that behave intelligently. Individual aspects of consciousness—awareness, self-awareness, attention—can be programmed and can be part of an intelligent machine. The additional project making

7968-451: The story from Sol was that Goodman was playing with one of the heads of Independent News , not DC Comics (though DC owned Independent News). ... As the distributor of DC Comics, this man certainly knew all the sales figures and was in the best position to tell this tidbit to Goodman. ... Of course, Goodman would want to be playing golf with this fellow and be in his good graces. ... Sol worked closely with Independent News' top management over

8064-429: The subject. He suggested that current LLMs were probably not conscious, but that the limitations are temporary and that future systems could be serious candidates for consciousness. According to Jonathan Birch , "measures to regulate the development of sentient AI should run ahead of what would be proportionate to the risks posed by current technology, considering also the risks posed by credible future trajectories." He

8160-464: The superhero archetype, DC by the latter part of the decade was suffering from a creative drought. The audience for comics was no longer just children, and Sanderson sees the 1960s Marvel as the comic equivalent of the French New Wave , developing new methods of storytelling that drew in and retained readers who were in their teens and older and thus influencing the comics writers and artists of

8256-462: The theoretical computational limit of the entire universe. On a logarithmic scale it runs from −70 up to +50. Eastern religions including Hinduism , Buddhism , Sikhism , and Jainism recognise non-humans as sentient beings. The term sentient beings is translated from various Sanskrit terms ( jantu, bahu jana, jagat, sattva ) and "conventionally refers to the mass of living things subject to illusion, suffering, and rebirth ( Saṃsāra )". It

8352-665: The titular superhero team and the mutant superheroes the X-Men . The Android continued in the role of antagonist, appearing in Tales of Suspense #72 (Dec. 1965) as an opponent for Iron Man ; Rom #14 (January 1981) against the Parker Brothers -licensed hero Rom; and in Captain America #311 (Nov. 1985). The Android reappeared as part of a supervillain team in The Avengers #286-289 (Feb.-May 1988); featured in

8448-539: The water, causing his torso to flood and sink. The Android reappears during the " Acts of Vengeance " storyline, being repaired by the robot Machinesmith and used to distract the Avengers while several villains escape confinement in the prison facility the Vault . The Android is neutralized by Captain Marvel . After battles with the superhero teams the Thunderbolts , and the Heroes for Hire , and two more encounters with

8544-506: The winter of 1967 appeared to consist of little else but live-action and animated cartoon comic-book heroes, all in living colour." Existing comic-book publishers began creating superhero titles, as did new publishers. By the end of the 1960s, however, the fad had faded; in 1969, the best-selling comic book in the United States was not a superhero series, but the teen-humor book Archie . Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren draws

8640-418: The word "sentience" has been used to translate a variety of concepts. In science fiction , the word "sentience" is sometimes used interchangeably with " sapience ", " self-awareness ", or " consciousness ". Some writers differentiate between the mere ability to perceive sensations, such as light or pain, and the ability to perceive emotions , such as fear or grief . The subjective awareness of experiences by

8736-486: Was a Golden Age comic for sale or a Silver Age comic for sale." Spanning World War II, when American comics provided cheap and disposable escapist entertainment that could be read and then discarded by the troops, the Golden Age of comic books covered the late 1930s to the late 1940s. A number of major superheroes were created during this period, including Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman , Captain Marvel , and Captain America . In subsequent years comics were blamed for

8832-544: Was an important element of both Golden Age and Silver Age characters. Many Golden Age writers and artists were science-fiction fans or professional science-fiction writers who incorporated SF elements into their comic-book stories. Science was a common explanation for the origin of heroes in the Silver Age. The Silver Age coincided with the rise of pop art , an artistic movement that used popular cultural artifacts, such as advertising and packaging, as source material for fine, or gallery-exhibited, art. Roy Lichtenstein , one of

8928-584: Was available in "great quantity, but little quality". Batman and Robin were doing better, but Batman's comics were "lackluster" in comparison to his earlier "atmospheric adventures" of the 1940s, and Wonder Woman, having lost her original writer and artist, was no longer "idiosyncratic" or "interesting". Aquaman and Green Arrow (with his sidekick, Speedy ) were also still appearing as back-up features in Adventure Comics , "the only other two superheroes" known to have remained continuously in print from

9024-416: Was introduced by Robert A. Freitas Jr. in the late 1970s. It defines sentience as the relationship between the information processing rate of each individual processing unit (neuron), the weight/size of a single unit, and the total number of processing units (expressed as mass). It was proposed as a measure for the sentience of all living beings and computers from a single neuron up to a hypothetical being at

9120-418: Was published from 1955 to 1959. DC Comics sparked the superhero revival with its publications from 1955 to 1960. Marvel Comics then capitalized on the revived interest in superhero storytelling with sophisticated stories and characterization. In contrast to previous eras, Marvel characters were "flawed and self-doubting". DC added to its momentum with its 1960 introduction of Justice League of America ,

9216-467: Was the development of the character makeup of superheroes. Young children and girls were targeted during the Silver Age by certain publishers; in particular, Harvey Comics attracted this group with titles such as Little Dot . Adult-oriented underground comics also began during the Silver Age. Some critics and historians argue that one characteristic of the Silver Age was that science fiction and aliens replaced magic and gods. Others argue that magic

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