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

[Kim Sullivan]

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


> > 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?
>
> I don't agree with you here for the reasons stated above..
> The PERSON Commander Data CAN be killed, he is an android and he is =
one of a
> kind...the doctor is a program, so killing him would be more difficult =
as
> backup copies could exist...but if the whole ship is destroyed the =
series of
> holodocs just like the doctor will continue to exist, but THE doctor =
can be
> considered "dead"...

  This is probably way OT... As a Trekkie I have to say that the =
holomatrix of
the Doctor is so complex that there is probably no space for backups. =
Even if
the doctor transmits himself to the mobile holoemmiter (29th ce =
technology,
don't ask...) there is still only one copy present. There used to be a =
backup
copy of the original EHM, but that got used up in one episode (and all =
the
doctors personality had been lost).
  Another possible reason why backup copies of the doctor don't exist =
may be the
method that the data is stored and transferred. Many of the computer =
systems
seem to employ quantum technology. If you're familiar with quantum =
computing
theory then you know how difficult it is to preserve the state of a =
qubit. For
this reason, the doctor's matrix (many of the other computer systems =
also)
destabilizes from time to time (more for plot reasons :-)
  As for the transfer, there is a theory about 'teleporting'. I didn't =
exatly
get all of the details but it involves scanning the 'source' and then
transferring the information about the quantum state of all the =
particles
involved which then can be reconstructed. Well, one crucial point is =
that while
scanning the object, the quantum state of all the particles get's =
disrupted (see
Schroedingers cat) and thus the original becomes destroyed or something. =
Maybe
equal processes are happening when transferring the doctors matrix?

  Maybe sometime in the future, AIML data will become so big (probably =
due to
automated learning) that there won't be space for doing backups. Or =
maybe the
data will be stored using quantum technology, which removes the ability =
to
backup anything. And then, deleting a (large) set of AIML categories =
will
effectively kill a specific bot, or at least remove a big part of it's
personality.

Kim