Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 16 2017, @07:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the sentience-is-a-state-of-mind dept.

Finally, a real "Digital Liberty" story for the mechanical among us. The EU has released a report mulling topics such as "electronic personhood" status for robots, and kill switches:

The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs has proposed a legal framework for robots that clarifies whether they should have the legal status of people, even as it recommends the inclusion of kill switches in automated systems. "A growing number of areas of our daily lives are increasingly affected by robotics," said rapporteur Mady Delvaux in a statement. "In order to address this reality and to ensure that robots are and will remain in the service of humans, we urgently need to create a robust European legal framework."

The committee's draft report, due to be considered by the full EU Parliament in February, says that robot sales were increasing about 17 per cent annually between 2010 and 2014, then in 2014 the rate jumped to 29 per cent, driven by automotive parts suppliers and the electronics industry. It also notes that robot-oriented patent filings have tripled over the last decade.

[...] The committee is calling for an EU agency to oversee robotics and artificial intelligence and for the adoption of a voluntary ethical code governing who will be accountable for the social, health, and environmental impact of robots. It wants to ensure that robots operate according to established legal, ethical, and safety standards. The committee also hopes robot designers will take responsibility for the actions of their creations. "Robotics engineers should remain accountable for the social, environmental and human health impacts that robotics may impose on present and future generations," the report says.

The Prometheans are coming, and they don't care about anything's personhood.

Also at BBC and The Guardian.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @09:46AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Monday January 16 2017, @09:46AM (#454320) Journal

    OMG! khallow, you're pregnant? Congratulations! But if you could understand words, you would know I never said you don't own your own labor, I was just contesting whether you could actually alienate it. Kind of like whether or not you can sell your kids. Product of your own labor, right?

    And your endearing insults are becoming ever cuter. Bozo, eh? Bozo of the Golden Showers, to you, my dear khallow! No, Runaway has gone too far of late, and this journal is pure right wing crypto-Catholic agitprop. If I could find those priests that molested my relatives, I would have no problems with retroactive abortions. And the Fundie Christian Right used to have no problem with abortion until very recently. It always was a Catholic issue, and as we all know Catholics are not Christians! Or as I always say, Protestants are Heretics and should burn at the stake, and the same goes for Catholic, until the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church decided, for what reason only god knows, to un-excommunicate that pretender from the West, the Bishop of Rome. But, well, there it is, now. And only the Republicans are up about the abortion thing, because if it is not an authentic rape, like if you got raped, then it would not be a real pregnancy, so Runaway is knocked up four ways to Sunday, and I really hope we do not ban you, because, khallow, I enjoy our little talks, in your intermittent periods of clarity. Play a lot of classical music, it will make the kid smarter!

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Flamebait=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Monday January 16 2017, @09:55AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 16 2017, @09:55AM (#454325) Journal
    Be safe. Call 911. That babble sounds like it could be a stroke or aneurysm. I imagine you're feeling blinding headaches and numbness along one side of your body. Do something about it while you still can.
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @10:19AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Monday January 16 2017, @10:19AM (#454333) Journal

      Thank you for your concern, khallow. But when you are almost 2400 years old, you tend to know all the signs of medical conditions, so not to worry. Besides, it is only your obstinacy and coming to the aid of the most insidious enemies of personal freedom that could produce such verbiage from me, I assure you. So, if you calm down, I can as well. Then we can both go and mod down anyone who responds to Runaway's asinine journal, OK? Oh, and good luck with the pregnancy. Do you plan on carrying to term? It's your body, or not!

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 16 2017, @05:31PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday January 16 2017, @05:31PM (#454426) Journal

      You know, if this is all you have in reply...he's right, and you know it, and you haaaaaate it :) Aristarkos here is sort of like Eth's good twin, the Eth from the universe where we stopped electing cryptofascists after Nixon. Unlike Eth, his trolling very often has useful and insightful things in it.

      To Arist: liberals' biggest mistake is apologizing for being only mostly correct. Nil illegitimi carborundum, as they say.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 16 2017, @06:04PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 16 2017, @06:04PM (#454444) Journal

        You know, if this is all you have in reply...

        To what? Posts with substance get replies with substance.

        And it might well be that Ethanol-Fueled and aristarchus are the same poster. You never see them in the same room together!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @07:22PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @07:22PM (#454470)

          You never see them in the same room together!

          Interesting that you have noticed this. . . . But I have never seen them apart! So there is that.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:37PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:37PM (#454499)

            There must be time travel involved.

        • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 16 2017, @08:33PM

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday January 16 2017, @08:33PM (#454497) Journal

          Horseshit, Hallow. Aristarchus DOES say things with substance, and on a fairly regular basis. Eth is basically a shock jock wannabee; think Howard Stern with the attention span of a gnat and malignant Tourette's.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:19AM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:19AM (#454808) Journal

            Aristarchus DOES say things with substance, and on a fairly regular basis.

            And when he DOESN'T, which is on an even more frequent, regular basis, don't expect me to bring my A game.

            • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 17 2017, @06:29PM

              by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday January 17 2017, @06:29PM (#455003) Journal

              You have an A game?

              --
              I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 17 2017, @04:00PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 17 2017, @04:00PM (#454933) Journal

          You haven't seen them in the same bed?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @09:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @09:57AM (#454327)

    Whole thing is off-topic, sort of. But maybe not? What if we are growing robots, and for some reason, before they are complete, they manifest defects, or maybe the market shifts and we no longer need so many: could we terminate these embryonic robots with no more feelings than shutting down an assembly line? At what point during assembly does a robot become a sentient being? Do you think that those embryonic robots do not feel pain? Should we not force the corporations that created these embryos, through their own morally loose and nasty behavior, to carry them to term, and to provide for them after they are initialized? Robot abortion is murder!!!!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @02:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @02:13PM (#454373)

      Sounds like the accident with the cloning machine that created Lentilla...and led to the creation of Allitnel -- both by the millions.