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

[Richard Wallace]

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


Sorry, software can't be killed.  Think of ELIZA.  Her creator tried to =
stop
her.  Yet once the genie
was out of the bottle she became the most popular AI program of all =
time,
until maybe ALICE.
How could you erase all of the millions of backup copies of a piece of
software?  Maybe some
kind of virus could try to track them down, but could it really destroy =
all
the backup copies on
CD and whatever else we have in the future?

I think the stupidest Star Trek plots revolve around "killing" Commander
Data or The Doctor.
Turning off one copy of an AI is hardly going to stop it.
Don't they do backups in the 23rd century?

Rich
\--- Original Message -----
From: "Christian Dro=DFmann" <drossmann@arcormail.de>
To: "Alicebot AI Ethics Committee" <aiethics@listbot.com>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 4:18 PM
Subject: [aiethics] Thought experiment: Punishment of robots...


> 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
>
>
>