Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT 22-26 August 2011 (1996-2000)

<< < (61/99) > >>

Akima:

--- Quote from: Throg on 25 Aug 2011, 12:08 ---All I can conceive of is a 'chinese wall' type AI -- good enough to fool us, but the computer has no 'soul' / 'spark' / 'ghost' / what-have-you.  Just enough of programmed responses to social stimuli to fool humans and even other AI's.
--- End quote ---
The very existence of a "soul" is highly speculative. Historically the possession of a soul, or at least an equal soul to that possessed by the privileged observer, frequently has been denied by humans to other humans of the wrong race, wrong religion, or wrong gender for centuries, and this continues to this day. Attitudes regarding non-human sentients as property are pretty much identical to those of a white plantation owner toward his slaves in the 18th century, or many men towards their wifes today, and supported by much the same argument: "We are special because we are special; they are not special because they're not."

Kwark:
Charlotte, the manager said no more circuit bending your sensors with acid !

St.Clair:
"I like life
Life likes me
Life and I fairly fully agree..."

Sorflakne:
Gonna have to say that Mari should keep the pigtails.  They somehow work for her.

Tova:
Before I'd even read the text of the fourth panel, I thought half-jokingly "Uh oh, she's gonna break into song in a second." It was still an amusing surprise when she did, though.

You can tell that it's unusual for there to be such a focus in the story on the anthro-pcs ... they have been in the comic since #1, yet now we're verging on #2000, a conversation about the ethics and morality of anthro-pcs is breaking out*.

I don't know if we can really answer the question "do androids dream of electric sheep," but I think that the only reasonable way to act is that, if they appear sentient convincingly enough to pass the Turing test, then we should treat them as sentient. I don't see how any argument about whether they have a "soul" or whatever should have anything to do with it. And my impression is that, in the QC universe, anthro-pcs are capable of happiness and suffering, and so deserve to be treated accordingly.

* OK now I've said that, someone will tell me that this is not the first time at all. Oh well.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page