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

[Chris Fahey]

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



I wrote:
> >   First, you're beginning with the assumption that a bot is a
> > self-determined sentient being like we are, which of course it is
> > not (yet).

Rich wrote:
> No, your first assumption is we are self-determined and sentient, =
unlike
> robots.
>=20
> Sentience, consciousness, self-awareness--are these not =
anthropocentric
> illusions?
>=20
> The jury is still out on that question.

  Good point.

  Using Turing-ian logic, I beleive that that question is almost as
unanswerable as wondering about the existence of God - and thus the only =
way
we'll ever know a "real AI" is when we see one. "Sentience" is a human
construct, but as far as machine intelligence goes human constructs
('anthropomorphic illusions') are the only tools we've got figure out =
how
we'll learn to live with human-like machines. We'll never "know" (or
believe) any kind of final truth about human or machine 'conciousness', =
so
we might as well admit that bots 'ain't that smart' yet. There's not a =
bot
on earth that can write a love letter or make me cry and that no bot =
exists
that can meet even that simple threshold. I doubt there are even any
crackpots (again, not yet!) who find bot companionship rewarding. Or are
there? Hmmm, I think I've used "she" (not "it") to describe Alice in a =
post,
so clearly we're getting close. Hmm, any robosexual trolls on the list? =
;)

  Maybe "sentient" should be redefined to mean "Like a human brain" =
instead
of "Having sense perception; conscious." I think that's what they mean =
on
Star Trek anyway, since Starfleet would incinerate a planet-sized =
jellyfish
in a second before tampering with the culture of, say, a =
superintelligent
species of humanoid alien hitlers.

-Cf