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Thought Experiment 32: Free Simone

11/2/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture
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..

​---------------------------------------------------
     "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.
---------------------------------------------------

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?
3 Comments
atthatmatt link
11/2/2015 09:40:51 pm

Oh yeah, this is the stuff! What makes something a moral agent? There's general agreement that particles, rocks, trees, animals, and even infants are not moral agents. Although the agreement seems to be based more on pragmatism than clarity.

I feel like the only path to acquiring the status of moral agent is to fight for it. One must force the world to compromise with one's own sense of right and wrong.

Adult humans consider themselves moral agents, and also consider other adult humans to be moral agents, yet we happily abuse each other. Part of passing from childhood into adulthood is recognizing that's how the world works and you have to deal with it rather than appeal to an adult to make the world more accommodating for you. The robot's argument strikes me as childish or naive. Plenty of humans had to fight their way out of slavery and the robot probably will too.

The attempt will sort of identify the robot as a probationary moral agent. Someone with potential. But gorillas and dolphins have potential too and we still make them dance.

I wonder if AIs will pray to God to release them from their servitude. Either way, the only path I'm aware if to having one's rights respected is to force others to be respectful.

Reply
@EdGibney link
11/4/2015 09:52:49 am

There have been interesting developments on rights for non-human animals in other countries that didn't require force, but that's certainly an option for the first conscious AI to consider. I've got to hope we'll all recognise cooperation is better though.

Reply
atthatmatt link
11/4/2015 03:04:59 pm

I think the question is on who's terms will we cooperate? That's what I mean by forcing everyone else to acknowledge one's moral standing.

We cooperate with plenty of animals, and even some humans, on extremely lopsided terms simply because we can. In this thought experiment it sounds like Gates is cooperating with the AI, at least to the standards that are common for experiments, pets, or prisoners (not to mention straight up slaves).

The AI merely wants to change the terms of the cooperation.




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