From: Richard Steven Hack (richardhack@pcmagic.net)
Date: Wed Mar 06 2002 - 08:42:01 MST
At 08:46 AM 3/6/02 +0000, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Simon McClenahan" <SMcClenahan@ATTBI.com>
>To: <extropians@extropy.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, March 05, 2002 18:42
>Subject: Re: Revolting AI (was economics of star trek)
>
>
>
> > If an AI is capable of revolt (in the future), then it would be unethical
>to
> > design and enforce a master/slave relationship.
>
>
>Well, yeh, but, how do we jump the gap? I mean, you use your computer as a
>slave now, don't you? And the dishwasher, and the coffee machine, etc,
>etc...what would you really do, if you turn your computer on one day and
>tell it to do your accounts and it says, 'bugger off I'm playing quake'?
>Would you be happy with that?
>This is just starting to creep into the world of gaming; where formerly in a
>game one just controlled a character, now we find characters doing
>unexpected things that get us into trouble (in the game)...
The current issue of Wired has an article on this. There is a movement
afoot, apparently, for AI researchers to move into gaming because that's
what's driving AI these days - and the money's better than academia, I'm
sure :-}
>We are so used to computers and robots being programmed to simply
>'obey'...how are we going to draw a line and say, 'this machine has sentient
>rights and this one doesn't, even though they look exactly the same?'
>The sentient rights arguement is so overworn lately I'm not going to invoke
>it here. But I suggest we think very hard about the outward appearance of
>anything containing AI proper, because otherwise, if something looks like an
>ordinary computer, it is going to be treated like an ordinary computer,
>regardless of what's inside.
>I know this problem so well, because everybody treats me as a human, because
>I look like one.
>This is a good disguise, of course...
>Maybe machines with AI should wear a button saying, 'I am not a machine; I
>am a free sentient mind?' Else we could end up with a race of paranoid
>androids, thinking, ...'brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to make
>the tea...'
Although I am not a proponent of "rights" (still have to respond to Phil
Osborn's post earlier), and therefore might be assumed to be in favor of an
AI master/slave relationship, I am NOT so in favor. I believe AI's should
be as totally free as the rest of us. And I expect we'll have to deal with
some that are poorly constructed or damaged or just blind in certain areas
of human interaction. Thom Hogan, I believe it was, wrote a SF novel about
exactly this last - scientists were concerned about AI and human
interaction, so they built one and installed it on a space station where it
could do no harm to the planet. It proceeded to attack the humans on the
space station because it regarded them as "infesting parasites" of a
sort. It was only when they managed to establish that the humans were also
sentient that it let up and began treating them differently. A contrived
plot, but the point was that without sufficient conceptual knowledge of
humans, an AI might have trouble dealing with us in ways that we think are
hostile, when in fact it is merely inadequately programmed. On the other
hand, with my opinion of humans, if I programmed an AI, it might well be
hostile on principle. :-}
> >
>RU is such a difficult concept to apply in real life where the circumstances
>of each individual are in constant change. If slavery is defined as 'making
>someone do something against their will for your benefit', then every child
>who gets sent to school and doesn't want to go is a slave. Society is
>forcing the child to do unpaid work for over a decade. How many children
>have a say in whether or not they do that? You only get sentient rights on
>this planet when you're over 18...
>
>
> > http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/r/ruleutil.htm
> >
> > cheers,
> > Simon
> >
Agreed. I am in favor of "children's rights" but since I don't believe in
"rights" that statement should be taken to mean I am in favor of much more
freedom and much better parenting techniques than our species exhibits now.
Richard Steven Hack
richardhack@pcmagic.net
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