Monday, June 10, 2019

Androids' Rights?



I ran across an interesting question on Quora: When we do start making humanoid androids, should they be afforded civil rights?

I answered this way:

Not unless you can be sure they are sapient— or at least sentient. But even if they are, they would be a separate species, and rights don’t really transfer across species lines. A mouse has no right to not be caught, tortured, killed, and eaten by a cat, nor does a human have the right to not be mauled and eaten by a bear. (Both have the right to fight back against the attack.)

So, the androids would need to first demonstrate that they have rights by the way they interact with each other (ignoring the outliers like we would hope they ignore human bad guys), then maybe we could reach an agreement between our two species where we agree to respect each other's rights as though we were the same species. I would be willing.

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Writing is my job.
YOU get to decide if I get paid.

5 comments:

  1. mouse has no rights except what they can defend. same as bunnies, chicken, cows, humans, androids.
    rights are those things you'll impose with force.
    food has no rights.
    androids haved no rights, except what they'll kill to protect.

    human slaves throughtout history and across the globe- had no rights, because they accepted subjugation, rather than being willing to fight to mutual physical destruction.
    it will go the same way for/with androids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. then T1.
      franko columbo and arnold, vs reese and sarah connor.
      winner has rights.
      loser is servant.

      Delete
  2. philosophy: zero agression,
    defend through the schwerpunkt.

    grow civil societies that are robust and resilient. live free, or make the other guys die.

    ReplyDelete
  3. defend THROUGH their schwerpunkt.
    study and understand their vulnerabilities.
    ensure that it will be generations before any other dares try to touch that 3rd rail again.

    then enjoy living free.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Again:
      I would like for you to lay out exactly what you advocate doing. Coherently and in full. I sometimes think I've got the gist of it, but then you'll say something else which doesn't fit what I thought you were advocating, and I'd like to understand. I'm willing to give you a platform for a guest post on this blog if you can do so.
      (Send it as a comment or in email, and I'll post it on its own)

      Delete