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2 deep 4 me. BTW. The "soul" issue precedes this problem. According to experts, one- or two-cell organisms have already a soul and jerking off is thus a crime.

2 deep 4 me. BTW. The "soul" issue precedes this problem. According to experts, one- or two-cell organisms have already a soul and jerking off is thus a crime. So metering machine consciousness is in vain, as every transistor is already sacred. However there will probably be great philosophical divide here, as reformists will proclaim that only powered two-transistor flipflops demonstrate life and have soul.

imtringued 6y ago
Think of the inverse. It's possible to arrange a living creature to provably not have a human (or animal) style consciousness. By definition we say that plants are not conscious the way humans are conscious. Even if they do possess a soul they probably lack the ability to perceive the world through pain, vision or thought. So just build a human shaped creature that lacks the ability to perceive the world. Therefore consciousness is a property that is created by the creature itself. The conclusion is that you can build a conscious robot. Instead of thinking about turning it off you first have to think about turning it on. Is it ethical to bring children into this world, knowing that they will eventually die? If so then it would be equally ethical to do it to a robot. So if you have accepted that your robot will be turned off eventually it is no longer relevant whether it happens. Rather it is all about the situation in which a robot will be turned off. We accept that all humans eventually die but we also wish for humans to delay their death as long as possible. It would be similar with robots. We will turn them off when the situation requires it but we also want to avoid it as much as possible.