Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
What is the social/ethical/legal status of AnthroPCs?
Is it cold in here?:
Continued from weekly comic thread.
Marten treats Pintsize as a child but has also described him as a "friend", Hannelore seems to be friends with Winslow. Marigirl's relationship with Momo-tan seems to be more complex.
Hillary Clinton's AnthroPC uploads video of her wearing a towel and dancing to Daft Punk. This fits the conspiracy theory that they are surveillance devices installed by the dark powers that secretly control the QC universe.
If you don't see an option to your liking, feel free to suggest additional ones. This time I double-checked that the "Allow user to change vote" option is turned on. If that doesn't work then there's a bug in the forum software.
Orbert:
I voted for "Sentient machines" although "Machines with complex behavior" is probably pretty close too.
Carl-E:
I voted sentient, then changed to complex machines, so yes, the change vote option works - you have to remove the old vote first, though. i may have missed that on the previous poll by "Is is cold in here?"
OK, who thinks pintsize would actually pass the Turing test? You know, lock him in a room with Alan Turing's zombie and see who survives...
No, wait, wrong test...
Of course the Turing test is only the first step - the winning machine seems to be intelligent. There are machines that do pretty well at this, but that's a high degree of clever programming showing its face. So it's more like intelligent design than actual machine intelligence...
Of course, sentience involves a certan level of self-awareness, too, and the AnthroPC's seem to have that in spades. I think that's another arifice of some really advanced programming, myself.
Of course, if it walks like a duck man and quacks talks like a duck man...
... and now Frankie Valli's in my head. Dammit!
Tuitsuro:
Put it this way; Anthro-PCs are self aware, and are sentient. It's what differentiates anthro-pc's from more basic computers. As far as the QC world goes, this is a matter of fact. Remember what Hannelore said, a simple serendipidous combination of hardware and software created something which could not accurately be described as either, the mechanics of which are easily reproducable. I would say this indicates, beyond the technology, that anthro-machines are a sort of life-form. However, what this means in terms of societal rights is questionable. Human beings as a whole are not quick to grant rights to anyone, let alone things which aren't human. We know that humans in QC can own anthro-machines. We know that they can modify them as they wish without the anthro-pc's consent. Marigold was, at one point, worried about the welfare of Pintsize, so I suspect there's basic rules governing some semblance of humane treatment. But it's obvious that they don't have the same rights a human does.
raoullefere:
That treatment issue is one reason I think "machines with complex behavior" is the answer, or at least I hope it is. And for all we know, Marigold is some sort of fringe activist, or associated with such a group. (There used to be (and may still be) people who claimed that everything down to toasters had self-awareness, so why not?) Too, since at the time Momo seems to be her only companion, I can see Marigold having the need to believe anthropcs are sentient.
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