Hugo Fjelsted Alroe (alroe@vip.cybercity.dk)
Thu, 25 Sep 1997 18:22:22 +0100
On the issue of other incarnations of intellect.
Up till now we have been inventing and using different sorts of intellectual
tools, such as books, calculators and computer expert systems. I call them
tools because 'they' have not interacted autonomously and directly with the
rest of the world, but only through us humans - we have used them as
intellectual tools.
No doubt it is possible to develop directly interacting versions of these
tools - we call them robots. There are several aspects of interest here; for
one this can be a kind of test of our understanding of the levels in our own
incarnation of intellect, and secondly this understanding of ourselves might
throw some light on the nature of robots.
To be truly another incarnation of intellect, they have to be seperated from
our own, at least more than they are at present. Now suppose we decide to do
this (or more likely just let it happen) and succeed in doing it - what are
we faced with then. Some hints could be taken from the hype surrounding the
various versions of artificial pets being marketed as we speak. They are
premature versions of beings on the social level (like a cat) and though
they are in many ways dependent on their owners (a main aspect of 'being a
pet'), they posses the features that allow us make a social bond with them.
One concequence being that people wish to bury them when they pass away.
This indicates that basic ethics will apply to robotic creatures once they
are created.
We know we can make social (interacting and mutually representing) robotic
creatures, and we know we can make intellectual tools with rational powers
comparable to our own. I see no reason why we should not be able to make
robotic intellectual creatures. The question is whether we should, and here
some advance understanding of their nature would help in making such a
decision (though, judging from the way the development runs today, we
probably wont take time to decide before we act - dynamic quality has its
dark sides as well).
We ourselves have been pretty nasty towards our fellow passengers on
spaceship Gaia, and indeed we may only constrain ourself, by way of reason,
in order to keep the spaceship functioning. I am afraid robotic creatures
would not even have this concern.
There are all sorts of questions popping up in my mind, on 'human rights',
power structures and so forth, which really are qustions concerning our
human world as well.
I am not afraid of robots, there are surely many steps to take in order to
make them truly autonomous, but I am afraid of ourselves, we who make up
western culture (which has almost become *the* human culture) - we seem to
be taken by a religious sort of compassion for rationality, and building
robots is just a symptom.
Hugo
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