If a robot is a slave because its dependent, then so is my toaster (it's not free to act without me doing something to let it). Then again, if my toaster's a slave, then so am I (I'm not free to act without having an environment that lets me). So maybe we should think of slavery as the denial of the freedom to act in your own best interest. Then we have to ask 'do robots have interests'? If a robot preserves itself under normal circumstances, then I think it has an interest in preserving itself. So we need to make the robots as much dependent upon us as we are on them (it's fine if we're slaves of each other). Since all of our achievements are becoming computable, right now I can't think of any more sophisticated scenario than the one in the Matrix (robots farming humans). If anyone can think of a better dependence relation, I'd be very interested;
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
If a robot is a slave because its dependent, then so is my toaster (it's not free to act without me doing something to let it). Then again, if my toaster's a slave, then so am I (I'm not free to act without having an environment that lets me). So maybe we should think of slavery as the denial of the freedom to act in your own best interest. Then we have to ask 'do robots have interests'? If a robot preserves itself under normal circumstances, then I think it has an interest in preserving itself. So we need to make the robots as much dependent upon us as we are on them (it's fine if we're slaves of each other). Since all of our achievements are becoming computable, right now I can't think of any more sophisticated scenario than the one in the Matrix (robots farming humans). If anyone can think of a better dependence relation, I'd be very interested;