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Article 5560 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI failures
Message-ID: <1992May11.210524.30977@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 11 May 92 21:05:24 GMT
References: <1992May8.155052.13848@psych.toronto.edu> <1992May11.160456.15469@math.okstate.edu> <1992May11.183017.14806@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 47

In article <1992May11.183017.14806@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:
>
>So is this newsgroup only for the ethically-impaired?  I am quite
>appalled at the cavalier notions of morality (or lack thereof) being
>spouted on this topic.  

 I think you are jumping to conclusions far too soon here.

 Ethical judgements are often much more complex than at first seems apparent.
It is quite easy, for example, to state that it is unethical to enter another
person's house unless invited.  But it is also easy to think of situations
where it might be unethical for say a policeman or a firefighter, or perhaps
a next door neighbor, to not enter the house, even in the absence of
permission.

 In the U.S. at present there are millions of people who are shocked and
offended at the idea of using abortion as a form of birth control, yet who
would find it unethical for them to pass judgement on a woman who
terminated an unwanted pregnancy.

 So, given the complexity of the making ethical judgements, and the fact that
we have little experience with the type of situation under discussion,
I believe it is premature to judge the ethics of pulling the plug on AI.
By the time such a decision has to be made much more will be known about
how it was implemented, and about how intelligent it really is.
Then, of course, there are the inevitable questions: What if it is suicidal?
What if it is schizophrenic?  What if it is seriously deranged?

 As I see it, we are in no position right now to make ethical judgements, and
will not be until we are much closer to implementing strong AI.  And it may
well be that by then the ethical problem will have solved itself.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 I guess we should remember the old joke.  A scientist, having put the
finishing touches to his superintelligent machine, turned on the power.
He then exercised his rights, by asking the first question.  "Who is
God?" he asked.

 "I am God" replied the computer.  And as the scientist stepped forward
to pull the plug, he was struck by lightning.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


