Not in the sense that you and I are. It's... um, it's difficult to explain.
[Especially to someone for whom the concept is entirely new. Reid chews at his lip a moment.]
Okay, so... technically all living beings can be studied from a biomechanical standpoint. We are all machines - organic ones, with thought and feeling, but the veins and capillaries and nervous systems in our bodies are mathematically quantifiable. There are electrical impulses in our brains that determine what we're doing and how we're going to do it - every time you move your hands or a finger or even walk, that's an electrical impulse being delivered to your--
[... he probably doesn't know all the parts of a human brain, Reid. He clears his throat.]
-- Brain.
But while biomechanics is the study of mechanical law relating to living organisms, these consoles are biomechanical. Possessing of both components. Organic - which does not necessarily mean 'living' in the sense that you and I enjoy - and mechanical. A sea sponge is an organic creature. Bacteria - you might know them as 'animalcules' or 'bacterium' - is organic, technically living but again not the same way we are. They're a unicellular organism. Incredibly simple, biomechanically speaking. These consoles have more in common with bacteria than they do with a thinking, feeling human.
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[Especially to someone for whom the concept is entirely new. Reid chews at his lip a moment.]
Okay, so... technically all living beings can be studied from a biomechanical standpoint. We are all machines - organic ones, with thought and feeling, but the veins and capillaries and nervous systems in our bodies are mathematically quantifiable. There are electrical impulses in our brains that determine what we're doing and how we're going to do it - every time you move your hands or a finger or even walk, that's an electrical impulse being delivered to your--
[... he probably doesn't know all the parts of a human brain, Reid. He clears his throat.]
-- Brain.
But while biomechanics is the study of mechanical law relating to living organisms, these consoles are biomechanical. Possessing of both components. Organic - which does not necessarily mean 'living' in the sense that you and I enjoy - and mechanical. A sea sponge is an organic creature. Bacteria - you might know them as 'animalcules' or 'bacterium' - is organic, technically living but again not the same way we are. They're a unicellular organism. Incredibly simple, biomechanically speaking. These consoles have more in common with bacteria than they do with a thinking, feeling human.