Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.kei.com!ub!galileo.cc.rochester.edu!prodigal.psych.rochester.edu!stevens
From: stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens)
Subject: Re: Ethical Concerns?
Message-ID: <1994Dec21.215227.17321@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
Sender: news@galileo.cc.rochester.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: prodigal.psych.rochester.edu
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York
References: <shea.1225.000BDD34@marcam.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 94 21:52:27 GMT
Lines: 30

In <shea.1225.000BDD34@marcam.com> shea@marcam.com (Tim Shea) writes:

>But let's say you're of the opinion that life is about the organization
>and evolution of complex, self-reproducing structures, independent
>of their physical nature. And you manage to create something which
>is "alive" by that definition. Do you feel OK pulling the plug? 

Do you feel okay taking anti-biotics? Stepping on ants?  Using Raid?
The ethical questions are hardly serious until you get behavior that
seems comparable to human behavior.  This is the same as with biological
life.  We feel fine about killing bugs, less fine about cats, even less
fine about chimps, and really bad about other people.

>Is it OK 
>to send self-reproducing machines out to colonize other planets? 

Is it OK to send self-reproducing people out to colonize other planets?

>Any chance some form of alife might come back to compete with us?

Most life competes with most other life, but the pragmatics of this question
seem lost in the unpredictable nature (given absolutely no precident or
current context to draw from) of whether this would happen.  Besides,
what if they do?  What if they don't?  Do you think there are interesting
implications either way?

Greg Stevens

stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu

