[alicebot-aiethics] Alicebot and the ship of Theseus

[Ben McKune]

Sorry to double-post, but this is another ethical issue I believe that the Alicebot brings up.
   
  I’m sure many of you have heard of the Greek legend of the Ship of Theseus, but for those who haven’t, I’ll explain it briefly: In ancient Greece, there was a ship that carried people between Athens and Crete for many years.  Over the years, the planks of the ship would become old and decayed and would be replaced.  Eventually, the sail, the mast, and every part of the ship was replaced.  So the question is: was the ship that sailed from Athens to Crete still the Ship of Theseus?
   
  This question also applies to people.  According to our current understanding of anatomy, the human body replaces nearly every particle of itself about once every 10 years or so.  So if you were in a coma for 11 years, you would literally come out of the coma as a new person.
   
  Now, here’s where all of this applies to Alicebot: let’s say that I spent the next 10 years of my life doing nothing but writing a chat-bot that would imitate and represent me in every way.  In 10 years I would have two versions of myself: the chat-bot, and the physical, biological person that everyone believes is me (i.e., the one the government issues the driver’s license to).  These two version of myself would have a few important things in common: 1) neither of us existed 10 years ago 2) both of us were constructed by me and no one else and 3) both of us took a full 10 years to construct.
   
  For now we can comfort ourselves by saying that chat-bots cannot represent us nearly as well as we can represent ourselves.  But if the past is any indication, this will not be true for much longer.
   
  So my ethical question is: would a chat-bot that fully and accurately represents a human being be considered a legitimate individual?  If not, what kinds of characteristics would a chatbot have to have before it was considered a legitimate individual?
   
  What would be the implications of having individuals who could be replicated a million times or deleted at the push of a button?  How would a re-definition of ‘individual’ affect individual rights?
   
  I only ask these questions because I think it would be great if we could work out these ethical dilemmas before these new technologies arrive.  I mean, think of how much better the world would have been if everyone had gotten together and decided how guns should be used before the first gun was ever fired.

 
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