Re: PHIL: Is it ethical to create special purpose sentients?

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Sun, 28 Feb 1999 23:44:49 -0500

Delvieron@aol.com wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Thought I would throw this question out. Is it ethical to create
> specially designed sentient beings which would be engineered to do specific
> tasks? Would it be ethical for their creators to profit from the labor of
> their creations? Esentially, we're talking about the possibility of a perfect
> slave caste, willing and able to serve general purpose sentients (like us) in
> whatever capacity we design them to. What do you all think?

No intelligent self aware creature should be a slave to anyone. The only relationship that a creator can have with his creations is that of the parent to child, and only for a period of time sufficient for the creation to mature to a mental/emotional/logical state of 'adulthood', at which time, the creation is a fully free individual. Forced child labor is abhorrent. You could engineer creatures who will be suited to and will find enjoyment in specific tasks, and their knowledge that that is what their genetic predispostion is may help many of them adjust to such a specified life more easily than current humans, but they must ultimately be free to choose if that is the life they wish to lead, and only for their own benefit, not for the benefit of others.

The only reason one individual should create another individual is because the first finds joy in creating, educating, and raising to 'adulthood' a free individual. Any motives based on concepts of ownership of other individuals are against Natural Law.

--
TANSTAAFL!!!
   Michael Lorrey, President
                        Lorrey Systems
                        Webmaster, Mallnetworks.com
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:mike@lorrey.com                    Death to Spammers!
mailto:mike@mallnetworks.com
------------------------------------------------------------
"A society which trades freedom for some measure of security
shall wind up with neither."   -----Benjamin Franklin

"The tree of Liberty should be watered from time to time
with the blood of tyrants and patriots."
                               -----Thomas Jefferson
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security
of a Free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed."  -----US Constitution,
                                    2nd Amendment
"You can have my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead
hands..."                      -----Anonymous

"Once we got their guns away from them, taking their
money was REAL easy."          -----Unknown North Korean
                                    Commissar