Robot Rights.

[popeyespappy]

This isn't going to fuck up battle bots is it?

You mean robot wars.

Guess that depends on what side of the pond you're on.

[fuckass365]

Replicating something and actually feeling something are two completely different things. I'm not sure it would matter in this case though.

[Anomalocaris]

I think whether robots should have rights doesn't depend on how intelligent, how self-aware, or how conscious they are. It depends depends on whether it profits or costs human society to treat them as if they have rights.

[fuckass365]

I think whether robots should have rights doesn't depend on how intelligent, how self-aware, or how conscious they are. It depends depends on whether it profits or costs human society to treat them as if they have rights.

True.

They will be created to perform a task and will be expected to do such.

[Anomalocaris]

And if they do indeed become self-aware, self-willed, intelligent and canny enough to seek protection from our caprices through assertion of "rights", whether we grant it to them would depend on whether we think they can harm our interests more if we don't.

[The Grand Nudger]

Replicating something and actually feeling something are two completely different things. I'm not sure it would matter in this case though.

At what point is the illusion so complete as to be inseparable or indistinguishable from reality? If an illusion can be so convincing, btw, then how can we be sure that our own feelings are anything more? Is the simulated being any more or less a "real" being than ourselves, and are we any more or less "real" than simulated beings (if we are, in fact, something other than simulated beings to begin with)? By what metrics would we determine this? The moment we're hinting at here would make all of our distinctions about personhood and "entities" more or less meaningless in the worst case, subject to complete review in the best case. That's what makes AI such compelling sci-fi. It's not just an adventure tour of the land of tomorrow, it relates directly to us, and even to our current ideas of who and what we are, precisely.

[Anomalocaris]

Replicating something and actually feeling something are two completely different things. I'm not sure it would matter in this case though.

The difference stops being important when the robots exhibit the inclination to protect themselves from our caprices, and the cunning to promote that inclination by leveraging an ability to make it more costly to us to deny them that right than to grant it to them.

[Paul the Human]

When that happens, one might as well call us god, as we will be the creator of a new lifeform. Perhaps it is simply a mechanical imitation of life, but if it is self aware, concerned with self preservation, and able to reproduce itself... It may as well be called 'life'.

As that life's god, we can and will grant it whatever rights we deem fit and take them away as we wish. Afterall, if the stories of the Christian god tell us anything, it's that gods get to be dicks.

[Anomalocaris]

When that happens, one might as well call us god, as we will be the creator of a new lifeform.

For our own sake, we should take great care to not give robots the wits to be atheists.