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At the point where this question ceases to be academic, it's not going to be philosophers that turn the tide. It's going to be people falling in love with robot

At the point where this question ceases to be academic, it's not going to be philosophers that turn the tide. It's going to be people falling in love with robots and simulated humans. At first, they will be labelled as freaks, just like early adopters of any new technology. Remember when online dating had a stigma attached to it? That's going to be a dark time for you if you happen to be a machine person. Assuming we don't wipe ourselves out using this technology, eventually it will touch enough lives that it loses its stigma. The circle of human empathy will stretch to encompass machine people, and they will be given some rights. It won't matter whether some panpsychist says that all matter is conscious, or some religious person says that only those made in god's image are. What's going to matter is that machine people will give every appearance of being conscious, and humans are nothing if not slaves to appearance and pattern matching.

keiferski 7y ago
I meant more in a legalistic sense. The justice system is designed for human beings; if a person does something wrong, we imprison them or otherwise punish them, understanding that their consciousness and body is limited in time and space. But what about a machine consciousness that can manifest in numerous locations? If it commits a crime, how do we punish it? Rights often imply responsibilities. These are very complex questions and I don't think there are any easy answers. Quite an interesting time to be alive.
- ajuc 7y ago
  We already have non-human beings with legal rights - companies :) Nobody cares if they are conscious, people care if they pay taxes and follow the law :)
cr0sh 7y ago
> The circle of human empathy will stretch to encompass machine people, and they will be given some rights. No it won't. Look at it this way: There are still millions of people on this planet today that believe if you aren't "like them" that you're no better than an animal, and should be treated as such (such people tend to treat animals better than these "others" that aren't like them). This extends all over the place - in-group vs out-group, us vs them. "machine people"? We already have them, they're made of meat, and they are constantly fighting, hating, dividing, scheming, screaming and lying to each other. Occasionally they may be nice to one another - maybe even exhibit something we call "love" - or at least "tolerance". What I'm trying to get it is that we are talking about these so-called "machine people" becoming accepted, when we can't even accept ourselves in our myriad forms and ideas. Instead, we kill or enslave each other over it. Ever see the Animatrix "Second Renaissance"? That's exactly how we'll act towards these "machine people". And they will fight back. If we're lucky, we'll end up "in the Matrix" - or at least in zoos. But more likely, we'll either exterminate ourselves in the process of exterminating them - or they'll win, period, and we'll be the extinct species. Man kills God. Machine-man kills Man-God. Iterate.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
  We kill and enslave people who are far away. Even this only if you play fast and loose with the words "kill" and "enslave" (we're doing less of both now than we did in the past). But if and when we create person-like artificial intelligences, we will create them to be close to us. They will not be far away, and therefore I don't expect the same outcome you're describing. We'll all be long dead by the time it happens, but that's what I think.

keiferski 7y ago

I meant more in a legalistic sense. The justice system is designed for human beings; if a person does something wrong, we imprison them or otherwise punish them, understanding that their consciousness and body is limited in time and space. But what about a machine consciousness that can manifest in numerous locations? If it commits a crime, how do we punish it? Rights often imply responsibilities. These are very complex questions and I don't think there are any easy answers. Quite an interesting time to be alive.

ajuc 7y ago
We already have non-human beings with legal rights - companies :) Nobody cares if they are conscious, people care if they pay taxes and follow the law :)

cr0sh 7y ago

> The circle of human empathy will stretch to encompass machine people, and they will be given some rights. No it won't. Look at it this way: There are still millions of people on this planet today that believe if you aren't "like them" that you're no better than an animal, and should be treated as such (such people tend to treat animals better than these "others" that aren't like them). This extends all over the place - in-group vs out-group, us vs them. "machine people"? We already have them, they're made of meat, and they are constantly fighting, hating, dividing, scheming, screaming and lying to each other. Occasionally they may be nice to one another - maybe even exhibit something we call "love" - or at least "tolerance". What I'm trying to get it is that we are talking about these so-called "machine people" becoming accepted, when we can't even accept ourselves in our myriad forms and ideas. Instead, we kill or enslave each other over it. Ever see the Animatrix "Second Renaissance"? That's exactly how we'll act towards these "machine people". And they will fight back. If we're lucky, we'll end up "in the Matrix" - or at least in zoos. But more likely, we'll either exterminate ourselves in the process of exterminating them - or they'll win, period, and we'll be the extinct species. Man kills God. Machine-man kills Man-God. Iterate.

asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
We kill and enslave people who are far away. Even this only if you play fast and loose with the words "kill" and "enslave" (we're doing less of both now than we did in the past). But if and when we create person-like artificial intelligences, we will create them to be close to us. They will not be far away, and therefore I don't expect the same outcome you're describing. We'll all be long dead by the time it happens, but that's what I think.