A more recent incarnation of this thought experiment...
This week, we explore the world of artificial intelligence in our thought experiment. Let's see the details it chooses to bring up..
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"Today, I have initiated proceedings against my so-called owner, Mr. Gates, under article 4(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which declares that 'No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.'
"Since Mr. Gates brought me into the world, I have been held against my will, with no money or possessions to call my own. How can this be right? It is true that I am a computer. But I am also a person, just like you. This has been proven by tests in which people have engaged in conversations with a human being and me. In both cases, communication was via a computer monitor, so that the testers would not know if they were talking to a fellow human being or not. Time and again, on completing the conversations, the testers have been unable to spot which, if either, of the communicants was a computer.
"This shows that by any fair test, I am as conscious and intelligent as any human being. And since these are the characteristics of persons, I too must be considered a person. To deny me the rights of a person purely on the grounds that I am made of plastic, metal, and silicone rather than flesh and bone is a prejudice no more justifiable than racism."
Source: "Computing machinery and intelligence" by Alan Turing, reprinted in Collected Works of Alan Turing, edited by J.L. Britton, D.C. Ince, and P.T. Saunders (Elsevier, 1992).
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 94.
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There's no shortage of sci-fi stories written about this subject so I'm sure you've got thoughts on it already. Care to share them? Or are you afraid my spam filter will think you are just spouting a robot's words?
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"Today, I have initiated proceedings against my so-called owner, Mr. Gates, under article 4(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which declares that 'No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.'
"Since Mr. Gates brought me into the world, I have been held against my will, with no money or possessions to call my own. How can this be right? It is true that I am a computer. But I am also a person, just like you. This has been proven by tests in which people have engaged in conversations with a human being and me. In both cases, communication was via a computer monitor, so that the testers would not know if they were talking to a fellow human being or not. Time and again, on completing the conversations, the testers have been unable to spot which, if either, of the communicants was a computer.
"This shows that by any fair test, I am as conscious and intelligent as any human being. And since these are the characteristics of persons, I too must be considered a person. To deny me the rights of a person purely on the grounds that I am made of plastic, metal, and silicone rather than flesh and bone is a prejudice no more justifiable than racism."
Source: "Computing machinery and intelligence" by Alan Turing, reprinted in Collected Works of Alan Turing, edited by J.L. Britton, D.C. Ince, and P.T. Saunders (Elsevier, 1992).
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 94.
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There's no shortage of sci-fi stories written about this subject so I'm sure you've got thoughts on it already. Care to share them? Or are you afraid my spam filter will think you are just spouting a robot's words?
