When people discuss the ethics of the treatment of artificial intelligent agents, it's almost always with the presumption that the key issue is the subjective level of suffering of the agent. This isn't the only possible consideration.
One other consideration is our stance relative to that agent. Are we just acting in a selfish way, using the agent as simply a means to achieve our goals? I'll just leave that idea open as there are traditions that see value in de-emphasizing greed and personal acquisitiveness. Another consideration is the inherent value of self-determination. This is above any suffering that might be caused by being a completely controlled subject. One of the problems of slavery was just that it simply works better if you let people decide things for themselves. Similarly, just letting an artificial agent have autonomy for its own sake may just be a more effective thing than having it simply be a controlled subject. So I don't even think the "consciousness" of an artificial intelligent agent is completely necessary in considering the ethics of our stance towards it. We can consider our own emotional position and the inherent value of independence of thinking. andi ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=120640061-aded06 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
