From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!nagle Thu Oct  8 10:10:57 EDT 1992
Article 7089 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI rights
Message-ID: <1992Oct2.060403.29588@netcom.com>
Date: 2 Oct 92 06:04:03 GMT
References: <1992Oct1.232114.1593@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)
Lines: 32

lfoard@Turing.ORG (Lawrence C. Foard) writes:
>One major problem I foresee with the arrival of "true AI" is that
>they may end up being slaves. 
>Has anyone thought about trying to head off this disaster by insuring
>the rights of all sentient beings before "true AI" comes to pass?

      It's not clear that all sentient systems should have rights.
It's too early to really address this issue, but it's worth considering
that the motivational system of an AI is somewhat arbitrary.  Some
motivational systems are sufficiently incompatible with human society
that coexistence will not be workable.

      Systems which are evolved, like Tierra, may present a problem.
Forced evolution in hostile environments may result in systems with
very strong survival-at-all-costs imperatives.  These may not be 
something we want around.

      Nagle's prediction for the year: before the '90s are out,
someone will have combined something like Tierra with something
like the Morris worm, and the result will be a big headache for
many people.

      As for the rights issue, for the time being, I suggest a rule of thumb.
If you believe Moravec (in "Mind Children"), an ant has about 10 MIPS,
a mouse has about 10,000 MIPS, and a human has about 10,000,000 MIPS.
(Don't argue about this until you're read the book, please.  He may
be wrong, but he does have a rational basis for deriving these numbers.)
So I suggest that we take the position that we can ignore the rights
issue for anything below a few thousand MIPS.  But as we advance
well beyond that level, it may become a real issue.

					John Nagle


