Imagine that this is the 23^rdcentury and you are a scientist doing field work on a distant planet. You have contracted to spend three years there studying primitive life forms. You have been without any human companionship for over a year. One day, a supply spaceship arrives from Earth.The ship has a crew of one person, an exceptionally attractive, witty, and charming person of your preferred sex. You are immediately attracted to each other - you walk, you talk, you kiss, you become lovers, and so forth. He/She/Thee agrees to stay with you for the next two years and sends the supply ship back to Earth. Your spirits soar, you have renewed enthusiasm for work and for life. Then one day, while exploring your lover's sleeping body, you find inside the lining of the navel a silver ring. Imprinted on the ring are the words "Made in Japan". Your lover is an android, a synthetic human! The question is: would you still accept and love this "person" as a conscious, feeling being, as you did before you discovered the ring? Why did you accept this "person" as a conscious being in the first place?