if my point seems to have been the point of the documentary, then I haven't suceeded in making it.)
No, the point of the documentary did not seem to be the point of your post, to me.

I am writing about attributes of language and about ethics, not science fiction.
That is a big relief. Okay, language: it seems to me that you are saying when we ascribe the property of thinking to machines, it will be at that point that they begin to think?
In the way we imagine them thinking as we do, I mean? Oh dear, if I got your first paragraph right, you said it better than I am. Basically: machines are what they are, in actuality. But we imagine them to be more than that, when we start giving them attributes such as empathy.
Is that about right?

Of course language plays a huge role in ethics. We have had many discussions about political correctness here, which cover a good deal about ethics. I can't recall if any of them discussed language used as propaganda, though.

The perpetrator could think, "I'm really sorry that you have to be sacrificed, but it's for the greater good.

Here I cannot agree. Look at Nazi propoganda.
Please note: I said "could", not "did". I think it could happen.
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I had wondered if I could appropriate a usage of the word holocaust in a specific way, and after looking it up, realized I couldn't. But Atomica had something interesting:

"USAGE NOTE Holocaust has a secure place in the language when it refers to the massive destruction of humans by other humans. Ninety-nine percent of the Usage Panel accepts the use of holocaust in the phrase nuclear holocaust. Sixty percent of the Panel accepts the sentence As many as two million people may have died in the holocaust that followed the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia. But because of its associations with genocide, people may object to extended applications of holocaust. When the word is used to refer to death brought about by natural causes, the percentage of the Panel accepting drops sharply. Only 31 percent of the Panel approves the sentence In East Africa five years of drought have brought about a holocaust in which millions have died. In a 1987 survey, just 11 percent approved the use of holocaust to summarize the effects of the AIDS epidemic. This suggests that other figurative usages such as the huge losses in the Savings and Loan holocaust may be viewed as overblown or in poor taste.•When capitalized Holocaust refers specifically to the destruction of Jews and other Europeans by the Nazis and may also encompass the Nazi persecution of Jews that preceded the outbreak of the war.

WORD HISTORY Totality of destruction has been central to the meaning of holocaust since it first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century, used in reference to the biblical sacrifice in which a male animal was wholly burnt on the altar in worship of God. Holocaust comes from Greek holokauston (“that which is completely burnt”), which was a translation of Hebrew ‘ōlâ (literally “that which goes up,” that is, in smoke). In this sense of “burnt sacrifice,” holocaust is still used in some versions of the Bible. In the 17th century the meaning of holocaust broadened to “something totally consumed by fire,” and the word eventually was applied to fires of extreme destructiveness. In the 20th century holocaust has taken on a variety of figurative meanings, summarizing the effects of war, rioting, storms, epidemic diseases, and even economic failures. Most of these usages arose after World War II, but it is unclear whether they permitted or resulted from the use of holocaust in reference to the mass murder of European Jews and others by the Nazis. This application of the word occurred as early as 1942, but the phrase the Holocaust did not become established until the late 1950s. Here it parallels and may have been influenced by another Hebrew word, šô’â (“catastrophe,” in English, Shoah). In the Bible šô’â has a range of meanings including “personal ruin or devastation” and “a wasteland or desert.” Šô’â was first used to refer to the Nazi slaughter of Jews in 1939, but the phrase haš-šô’â (“the catastrophe”) became established only after World War II. Holocaust has also been used to translate ḥurbān (“destruction”), another Hebrew word used to summarize the genocide of Jews by the Nazis.


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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


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