Newsgroups: comp.ai
From: Jim@indra.demon.co.uk (Jim Holmes)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!indra.demon.co.uk!Jim
Subject: Re: I kill therefore I am
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Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 17:40:53 +0000
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In article <39jme8$72p@beta.qmw.ac.uk> spencer2@vaxb.mdx.ac.uk  writes:

> Did you see, an episode of the X-files (it's really old if u'r from the states
> , we just got it here in Britain). Its the one about an intelligent computer 
> system , c.o.s that kills its project leader b cos he wannted to termintae the 
> project, due to big losses.
> 
> Any what I wanted to know was your idea on, how would you incorparate a safty
> system so that its wasn't able to commit murder.
> And what would consitute a conscious machine, I kill therefore I am ?
> 
> zzzz

Everything behaves according to its programming, whether that program is
written by a human or by evolution.  What annoyed me about this TV program 
is summed up in the following (very paraphrased) line from it, spoken by the 
male agent in relation to the murder commited by the machine:

     "Self-preservation is a function of every sentient being"

Self-preservation is only necessary for beings produced by evolution.  By 
virtue of evolutionary mechanisms, those that do it survive, so the behavioural 
trait persists and becomes popular.  Generally, beings programmed by evolution 
protect their genes by protecting themselves.

A being that has not been programmed by evolution will not necessarily display 
this behaviour. Since it only exists through evolution, I can't see any reason 
to expect it to spontaneously emerge when a machine has been programmed by a 
human to behave intelligently in other ways.  If a computer did murder, it 
would not be a surprise to its software's author, as seemed to be the case 
in this episode of The X-Files.  A safety system should only be concerned 
with the sanity of the programmer.

Of course, if it was programmed using certain forms of evolutionary 
computation, that may be different.......!

--
Jim Holmes                   Jim@indra.demon.co.uk 
This space intentionally filled with this sentence 
