[aiethics] Thought experiment: Punishment of robots...

[Christian DroЯmann]

Alicebot AI Ethics Committee - http://www.alicebot.org


Hi!

Just a little thought experiment that came to my twisted mind about an =
hour
ago...

We talked about holding robots responsible for things they do...what =
about
this:

The United States still have death penalty in some states as a means of
punishing serious crimes like murder for example.
Let's assume death penalty is still an option in a time in the future =
when
we have intelligent robots with a conscience...
How should a robot that commits murder be punished then? Lethal =
injection,
hanging or the gas chamber are not an option for obvious reasons...the
electric chair might work in some cases...a firing squad might work as =
long
as the robot's material is not bulletproof (thing of the case the G3-Mac
came with...it actually WAS bulletproof!)...or would we need to invent a =
new
method for the execution of a murderous robot? Death by formatting the
harddisk (or any other media the bot's mind is saved on)? How could one =
kill
a robot?
And how would one keep a robot in "robot death row" prior to his =
execution?
Would depriving him from any network connection mean "prison" for a =
robot?

Any thoughts?

Christian