[extropy-chat] MP3000s

[kevinfreels.com]

Well of course, the whole star wars saga is full of them. Of course, people can be had as slaves as well. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Marc Geddes 
  To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org 
  Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:05 AM
  Subject: [extropy-chat] MP3000s


  >Best of the season to all. Hiding downstairs from the upstairs festivities,
  I've finished a draft of a short paper I am working on dealing with the
  question of whether we can own or otherwise dictate the life trajectories of 
  human-level intelligent robots. I would be interested if anyone has examples
  from fiction or non-fiction where it is assumed that it is morally
  permissible to own human-level robots. An example that came to me this 
  morning (and made me smile) was "Rosie" from the Jetsons. Rosie is purchased
  as a slightly used robot but she is sensitive enough to try and leave the
  Jetsons when she believes that she has caused the Jetsons problems. Poor 
  Rosie, she is a slave.

  Cheers,

  Mark
   

  Best AI's in science-fiction I've ever seen were the AI's in the 'Blake's 7' TV series:
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076987/

  I loved that series.  Laughable special effects, but great script, great plots, great characters and best depiction of AI's in sci-fi.  Might be worth you getting the videos if you aren't familiar with the series and want a look. 

  The AI's that featured were called ORAC, ZEN and SLAVE.  After watching the episodes when I was 12 or so I remember trying to create an AI on my ZX Spectrum (48k RAM and a sound cassette for data storage!).  Yudkowsky and Wilson would both have been in nappies then ;)  

  ---

  Of course the question of whether it's ethical to own human-level intelligent robots probably only boils down to whether they're sentient or not.  I don't know whether it's possible to have non-sentient human level intelligence but I guess it is.   (Of course - self-improving intelligence is another matter - again I don't know - but my guess would be that non-sentient AI's can't self-improve - they'd be stuck at the same intelligence level - I guess that Qualia are neccesserily generated by the growth and integration of novel knowledge). 





  wwwpermanentend.org/Walker/mp3000.html

  Dr. Mark Walker
  Departme= nt of Philosophy
  University Hall 310
  McMaster University
  1280 Main Street West 
  Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4K1
  Canada



  -- 
  "Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder's eye on the last day" 


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