Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

AI civil rights and status

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hedgie:
Also, when Marigold wakes up in the middle of the afternoon, it's not because of whatever abuse of booze and drugs happened the night before.  Otherwise, yeah, I can see that kind of dynamic going on.

ASB84:

--- Quote from: DSL on 25 Jan 2015, 16:21 ---Why does it need to be a retcon? Haven't you never had someone come into your life who turned out to be more than they seemed at first glance?

--- End quote ---

That doesn't really have anything to do with what I'm referring to, though.

In early strips, Pintsize was somewhat of a cross between property and a pet, with very clear references to owners and whatnot when it came to AnthroPCs. Subsequently, AIs have been shown to have independence and legislation protecting their rights. Furthermore, a flashback to a time before the comic began - ie prior to a period where Pintsize was property - showed Marten entering into his companionship contract and Pintsize thus getting the job. There's an inconsistency there.

It's no big deal in the long run, though. Retcons aren't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't use the word disparagingly here. I think any inconsistencies can be glossed over, with firmly established canon prevailing over Early Installment Weirdness.

To throw another example out there: very early on in The Simpsons, the Simpsons' address varies a bit; sometimes it's another number on Evergreen Terrace, once it was Spaulding Way, and once 742 Evergreen Terrace was where the Springfield Police Department ended up on an episode of COPS (and it definitely wasn't the residence of the Simpsons family on that occasion. However, the writers eventually decided upon having the Simpsons live at 742 Evergreen Terrace, and henceforth, that's been established as canon. All subsequent references to them living at that address stand firm against any contradictions.It's just the way it goes with long-runners, when it comes to backstory and minutia.

Zebediah:
Anyone interested in this topic should find a copy of Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects and read it. It is, on the surface, a short novel about artificially-intelligent pets from a Second-Life-style environment that evolve into something more.

There is of course a lot going on beneath the surface, which is why I like to tell people that it's actually a novel about raising special-needs children.

Also, you should find everything else that Ted Chiang has ever written and read it, on general principles.

freeman:
In the current WCDT there was few interesting speculations about why Pintsize is turned off in Friday's comic. Particularly it was suspected that it would be because he would have alerted the emergency services even before Marten. I wonder, if it has been established that there are several classes of AIs and the constitution is a new thing yet, so even if they might have equal rights in theory (with very loud advocacy groups in any iffy situations), but they could still be an entity somewhat different from humans, with different set of basic legal rights and obligations.

Now, throw in the popular culture depiction of robots basically having Asperger's syndrome and no sense of morale, the facts the legislation tends to complicate as time passes, the fact that there probably isn't too much in "common law" applicable to AIs and let us not forget that those selfish human legislators wont just grant them rights free without some sort of horse-trading, it could very well be that the US laws of robotics could go as granular as "A§0x00A10000* Non-exclusive analogous-to-matrimony unions amongst biological and artificial intelligence..." "A§0x00A10005 Artificial party is obliged to report authorities immediately if...[ ]...There is a life threatening medical emergency, complication or poisoning..."

*(Yes, it's two 16 bit running counters and some laws have already had to have been divided into multiple sections because of running out of subsections...)

So... Pintsize may have been like "dude, if you don't slow down I may soon have to comply A§0x00A10005" and Faye's response must have been "not if I use my right to shut you down, section A§0x00080007 on non-Turing-compliant non-military AIs."

elfly:
I don't see much of an inconsistency between Momo pre and post chasis change.

She always seemed a bit above the crazy shenanigans Pintsize and Winslow were into, and probably became tired of them being her only company besides Marigold.

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