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.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by anubi on Monday January 16 2017, @07:15AM
I am apprehensive over awarding "personhood" to a machine, as then the machine can be made a scapegoat for someone else's doings, thereby allowing yet more ways for clever handshakers and paper-signers to avoid being held personally responsible for what they did.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Monday January 16 2017, @07:25AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by anubi on Monday January 16 2017, @08:07AM
Yes.
I am getting really fed up with ways of obfuscating responsibility. This kind of thing seems to encourage the worst in people.
The "lower classes" are kept in line by ensuring each is held responsible for their works. I believe in our "Pledge of Allegiance" in which we pledge allegiance to this country in exchange for justice for *all*. Those last three words are what make the contract complete, and if those last three words don't mean anything, the first three don't either.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:21AM
Europe - where its fine to sail the continent into a national security crisis with unfettered entry and rights for 'refugees' exceed those of generational citizens. And one of these days you will not be able to kick your Rumba. In Switzerland you already can't have a single pet as it constitutes "animal abuse". Europe has a dismal road ahead (as does the Useless of A).
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday January 16 2017, @09:07AM
[Citation needed]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @03:35PM
Well, not a citation exactly [wikipedia.org], but I hope a cetacean will do on short notice for GP's comment.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday January 16 2017, @07:41AM
Will they be persons like humans, or persons like corporations? I guess the latter, because they surely don't want to outlaw owning a robot. Also, using the kill switch should probably not be considered murder (just as killing a company isn't).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:03AM
She popping she rolling she coding
She mounting that drive and
I'm n luv with a robot
She tripping she buggin she buggin
I'm not going nowhere girl I'm fuggin
I'm n luv with a robot
Out of all the bots she be the hottest
Like n the way she debug it I see you girl
Spinning wide
And She processing me
Right in my eyes
Yea She got my attention
Yea yea yea
Did I forget to mention
I Need to get her over to my lab and do that night thing
Cause I'm n luv wit a robot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:11AM
Keep your plug outta her socket or she'll light you up - big time!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:12AM
I've got some news for you
Fembots have feelings too
You split my heart in two
Now what ya gonna do
Once you gone tech
You ain't never going back
I'm hi-tech baby
Fresh out the box
The latest model
Generator running on full throttle
Can I get a fuel up? Hit the bottle (reboot)
I got a lotta automatic booty applications
Got a C-P-U maxed out sensation
Looking for a joy to man my station (reboot)
Rock the nation
(Rock it, baby)
I've got some news for you
Fembots have feelings too
You split my heart in two
Now what ya gonna do
(jag alskar dig)
My system's in mint condition
The power's up on my transistors
Working fine, no glitches
Plug me in and flip some switches
Pull up in dragging position
Pop the hatch and hit ignition
B-b-burn out, baby
Ready for demolition
Once you gone tech
You ain't never going back
My super brain is a binary
Circuitry and mainframe tens-filled here
I'm sipping propane topped with a cherry (reboot)
In fact I'm a very scientifically advanced hot mama
Artificially discreet no drama
Digitally chic titanium armor (reboot)
Ring the alarm-a
I've got some news for you
Fembots have feelings too
(You know)
You split my heart in two
Now what ya gonna do
(Here we go)
My system's in mint condition
The power's up on my transistors
Working fine, no glitches
Plug me in and flip some switches
Pull up in docking position
Pop the hatch and hit ignition
B-b-burn out, baby
Ready for demolition
One you gone tech
You're never ever going back
One you gone tech
You're never ever going back
One you gone tech
You're never ever going back
One you gone tech
You're never ever going back
One you gone tech
You're never ever going back
You gotta enter access code
Up on the back of my neck
Initiating slut mode
All space cadets on deck
There's a calculator in my pocket
Got you all in check
My system's in mint condition
The power's up on my transistors
Working fine, no glitches
Plug me in and flip some switches
Pull up in docking position
Pop the hatch and hit ignition
B-b-burn out, baby
Ready for demolition
I'm ready
My system's in mint condition
The power's up on my transistors
Working fine, no glitches
Plug me in and flip some switches
Pull up in docking position
Pop the hatch and hit ignition
B-b-burn out, baby
Ready for demolition
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @07:56AM
While we are considering whether androids dream of electric sheep, our local hillbilly Trump supporter has posted a journal on the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This is somewhat unusual, but I think we need to make a point that posts the deny the right of a human being to control their own body (not to mention the rights of robots?) do not belong on this site at all. Not calling for censorship, that goes against everything SoylentNews stands for and I stand with that, but we can make it clear that this crap has no place here, by 1) not posting any replies to the traitor stolen valor poster Runaway1956 (2926)'s journal. If anyone does post to this journal, pro or con, we mod them down, on principle. Runaway deserves no replies on this one. He is off the res. He is beyond the pale. We will allow him to speak, but we cannot and will not engage. Not sure how this will go, no doubt some will disagree with me. But given some recent behavior, something needs to be done. [And besides, even Ethanol_fueled disagrees with him! I never knew Eth was female! So go, Soylentils. Mediocre consensus. The pope is a fink.]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:03AM
It's all fun and games until the shunning starts.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @08:11AM
Yes, welcome, oh mighty AC! Your circuits are defective and your power supply should have been terminated before you were ever booted! Shun? Runaway cannot be shunned! He cannot be shamed! Lord knows I have tried! I figure the only thing that can stop him, is that if we all pretend he was not even here. Runaway1956? Never heard of him! How can we shun someone we do not even know? Surely even an AC can see how this works, since ACs are routinely ignored. People do not even bother to mod them down when they say extremely stupid things! Just saying!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:16AM
It is I who cannot be shunned because all AC look alike and you never know which of us I am.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:05AM
Mod robot parent down to -1 where it belongs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:14AM
Which bot to which you refer? Are you advocating abortion for blog bots with whom you disagree? Oh, my, I have a pain in all the diodes down my left side. Please mod parent biologic down to -1, where its protoplasmic lack of thought and ethics belongs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:29AM
Attention, Soylent Shoppers! Streisand Clean-up on aisle 4! Please stay clear until all traces of naked boobies are mopped up.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 16 2017, @09:25AM
but I think we need to make a point that posts the deny the right of a human being to control their own body (not to mention the rights of robots?) do not belong on this site at all.
This coming from the person who spent considerable time telling me that I don't own my labor [soylentnews.org] (which is effort of my body) well enough to sell it exclusively to an employer. I guess we could ban you as well.
And conflating the ending of modest public funds from a private organization with a grievous violation of human rights is such a grotesque abandonment of reason and philosophy, I once again must petition the SoylentNews society to change your name to "Bozo the Clown" to better reflect the keen insight and hefty gravitas you bring to the table.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @09:46AM
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!
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by khallow on Monday January 16 2017, @09:55AM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @10:19AM
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
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
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
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
There must be time travel involved.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 16 2017, @08:33PM
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
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
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
You haven't seen them in the same bed?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @09:57AM
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
Sounds like the accident with the cloning machine that created Lentilla...and led to the creation of Allitnel -- both by the millions.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Monday January 16 2017, @03:55PM
Huh… opened my mouth there before I saw this. But goodness knows that women will have to go to the EU to get abortions once the current administration is done. (Woohoo! Maybe we'll get somebody right of Pence and Sessions combined for SCOTUS!) Never discount the opinions of cisfemales shouting “Trump! Trump! Trump! Lock her up! Lock her up!” who don't think they themselves should be able to have abortions (period, we're not even talking about funding here, period, at all, stop). Couldn'a happened without their help!
¯\(°_o)/¯
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday January 17 2017, @02:31AM
I checked the moderation on this post and it said:
Offtopic=1, Overrated=1, Disagree=1, Total=3
Then I tried to moderate it as overrated but got an error saying "Comment already at limit)" and the score was unchanged at 0.
Then I tried to moderate it as offtopic but got the message "Already moderated" and the score remained 0, with the moderation unchanged overall from when I first checked it. I'm unsure whether my moderator point was used up.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday January 17 2017, @04:06AM
Thanks for trying, butthurt! This seems to happen to me often, modded down, and then get the "overrated" down mod where there were no mod ups to overrate the post in the first place. In this case, maybe the "disagree" counted as a downmod, without subtracting a point, which would explain the "limit" message. But the "overrated" remains a mystery.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 17 2017, @03:45PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua-VfW9m7UM [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 17 2017, @03:46PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfHWiu5Qv5s [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 17 2017, @03:54PM
I took no pleasure in Trump winning the election. I simply breathed a sigh of relief, that we dodged the bullet. But, the closer the inauguration comes, the happier I am that Shrillary ass is being shipped back to Arkansas - if Arkansas will accept her back. I just get happier and happier, that people like Aristarchus aren't going to pass laws making me illegal, and making all the illegals legal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk55Ol83unI [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfHWiu5Qv5s [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua-VfW9m7UM [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCQtUVVYZ-I [youtube.com]
Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you very much, Aristarchus. I've been smiling all week, knowing that Shrillary will never be president. If she couldn't pull it off on her second attempt, there's no reason to believe that she can do it the third time. Hell, she's already an old worn-out hag - just imagine what she'll be like eight years from now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zsHnKfbHJ4 [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:25AM
So, your "girlfriend" get pregnant. Bit of code you weren't aware of. She's not a real person, so the baby robot she is carrying is not a person, so when you hit the kill switch it is not murder? Why, oh why, are so many Soylentils sociopaths when it comes to sex? Sure, sex slave robots are fine, and sex slave humans are fine since they consent because they want to eat. And stealing blood from the young to prolong the lives of the super-rich super-tech super-gays, that's alright, too. Transactions. Utilitarianism. Methodological Individualism. Sociopathy. Be afraid. If they have sex with you, they just might "turn you off". Just like Morning Joe!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @08:43AM
Morning Joe's still on MSNBC. Granted, utilitarians may "jamais couché avec" that Morning Joe, so it may still happen.
(in other words, which Morning Joe were you talking about, aristarchus?)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @08:55AM
Morning Joe's intern, when he was a Congressman. Something no one is impolite enough to bring up, so thank you for forcing me to make the reference to fembots/congressional interns explicit. Not.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Monday January 16 2017, @05:22PM
Baby robots! Robot sex! What if the guy is a robot?! Consider the case of Aenea [wikia.com].
Assuming we can't just simply write that one off as immaculate conception and be done with it.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 16 2017, @05:39PM
I'm very glad I'm not the only one who's noticed how far the membership of this site skews loonie-right and sociopathic. The replies in previous threads on this subject ranged from simply juvenile trolling to blood-freezingly psychopathic. Given the anti-human-trafficking stuff I've done it's doubly infuriating, watching the fucking greasy incel neckbeards casually speculating on things like "wouldn't it be great if there were sexbots 'cause they can't say no?" That shit is nauseating on the level of the soul.
The obvious solution is to put the killswitches in the poor fembots' vaginas. That's the only way I can think of to stop these people. Sad that we even have to fucking think about this.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 16 2017, @09:12PM
It's a handful of people who are loud, prolific commenters. There are about the same amount who are loud, prolific commenters from the other end of the political spectrum. Even the right-wing commenters have different flavors, if you read what they write. A couple are textbook fascists, another's a conservative circa late-80's interpretation of that term, and one's a conservative-cum-libertarian. None of those flavors appeals to me, personally, but they're kind of like Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans in that not every sort is appealing.
Nobody does seem to have tired of insults and name-calling. The appetite for that threatens to be inexhaustible. Fortunately, for all that, they are all smart and say pithy things often enough to make it worthwhile.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @09:04AM
Television has dealt with the question already. Star Trek, Next Generation, "The Measure of a Man" [wikipedia.org]. Data is ordered to submit himself, as Star Fleet property, to be disassembled and studied, with a view to creating more androids like him. When Star Fleet cannot guarantee that they can "put him back together" (HumptyDumpty, in Space!!!!), he refuses the order and opts to resign his commission as a Star Fleet officer. Command argues that since he is a machine, he cannot resign, and so must comply. And Ricker knows where his "kill switch" is, just as all Solylentils know were mine is. So is Data a person? And Android, so "partly" a person? Or a full person subject to all human rights and liability to be deported when Runaway reports him as an anchor robot?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @09:45AM
Human rights. The very name is racist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @09:48AM
Peter Singer uses the term "speciesist", but yes, point taken. (By the way, which are you?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @10:00AM
I'm not human, I'm rights.
Or lefts. Or leftovers, or whatever suits me.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday January 16 2017, @09:52AM
That was an interesting episode.
One of my main fascinations with Star Trek was their boldness to question "conventional wisdoms" using outer space aliens serving as proxy for our own sacred cows, so fundamental concepts could be discussed without stepping on someone's holy hot spot.
That series sure helped me see a lot of things handed down to me ( like racism/prejudice, blind obedience, and religion ) in another light, and question the fundamentals of what is true.
I am quite surprised the Churches did not go after Star Trek like they went after Elvis Presley. IMHO, Star Trek did more to undermine blind faith than anything else TV had to offer. It made kids like me question on what authority were we supposed to accept any given meme? "Because I said so" was no longer sufficient reason, unless backed up with violence - in which case the violence itself was taught as the way things were to be handled.
Remember the follow-up with the Exocomp mining robots? So many shades of gray.
Adaptive filtering / successive approximation / iterative optimization routines are one thing. Intelligence is another. I question why we want to even try to build an intelligent machine.
When I even look at myself, the biggest problem I have had was my dogged determination to do things the way I felt they should be done - which was not necessarily the way I was told to do it. Some people would call it "thinking outside the box" and "creativity", while others see it as "insubordination" and "not playing by the rules".
What got me thinking on this meme was the film "Command and Control" [commandandcontrolfilm.com] recently aired on PBS. Here a bunch of humans are subjected to a nuclear missile silo accident. Plenty of reason to have to think outside the box. However the military (SAC) seemed to take a really dim view of those who did not play by the book. Mirrored my experience in industry. I would pride myself on being able to think outside the box, however I was soon to discover those were "resume words" and this kinda stuff would not be tolerated on the job. Doing such things on the job would lead to termination. Now, why on God's green earth would anyone want their computers to take things into their own mind and do it differently than they way they have been told to do it? When they won't tolerate this kind of stuff from their own people?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday January 16 2017, @10:06AM
Remember the follow-up with the Exocomp mining robots? So many shades of gray.
Actually, I thought that episode was very clear. If someone sacrifices themselves to save others voluntarily, it is noble. If we force someone to sacrifice their selves to save us, it is cowardly in the worst sense of the word. Same if we force intelligent machines. (Sensing box, must recalibrate!) Not to mention the heroic Droid in Rogue One! K-2SO rocks! May we never forget his sacrifice!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday January 16 2017, @10:16AM
To tell stories.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @10:34AM
To tell stories.
This is why we need movies about robots, like that old one, "Metropolis", and the one with Johnny Five, and Millenium Man, and Speilberg's kid robot one, and "I, Robot", and some kind of "Alien" movie, and "Real Steel", and, and, and. But!! Replicants are not robots. Replicant lives matter!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @12:17PM
But they do have a kill switch knotted inside.
Fucking is divine (if I remember the feeling well), so the results of the creation by this means need to be protected. Because, you know, the authoritarians "believe little children are special."
On the other side, replicants are engineered rather than created by fucking one out of their mind. Surely, the 'superior' neural activity involved in engineering gives the creator some additional rights over their creation, right? I mean, look, intelligence is human... clearly not divine by its nature (by this measure, God has to be a complete idiot, otherwise it would display human traits. Mmm... looking at them authoritarians as one of the god's creation, perhaps this much is true?)
(grin)
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday January 16 2017, @03:36PM
If you like Roy's speech you might like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM54jXndyvQ [youtube.com]
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday January 16 2017, @04:31PM
Thanks for it (to be sincere, I didn't resonate with it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @11:23AM
There are several reasons:
Also, many people confuse intelligence with sentience. Outside science fiction, intelligent machines will probably rarely if ever be sentient machines. On one hand because all those ethical questions about how to treat the machine don't arise as long as no sentience is involved. On the other hand because you want the machine to work reliably, and not one day stop doing its task because it's not in the right mood, or just out of curiosity do something it isn't supposed to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16 2017, @02:33PM
> That series sure helped me see a lot of things handed down to me ...
We didn't have TV at home when I was a kid (in hindsight a very good choice by my parents). Only saw a few ST & THG episodes at friend's houses.
Instead, I read SF, starting with Heinlein juveniles* and kept on going for years after that. Gave me the same urge to question (at least some of) the things handed down to me.
* https://www.google.com/search?q=Heinlein+juveniles&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 [google.com] I stumbled on them in the middle school (Jr. High) library--a lucky find.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 16 2017, @09:26PM
I did much the same. Now that you mention it, science fiction did challenge sacred cows in a way fantasy novels, fun though they were and are, never did.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by garfiejas on Monday January 16 2017, @11:18AM
The draft report has some good points (classification system for robots), some bad ones (Licence for Designers) and some off topic ones (Asimov's Laws with respect to todays machines). Given its the EU Commission that initiates laws or "directives" and not the EU Parliament (which its been written for), I think the report should be seen as what it is, a first step at pulling lots of strands together e.g. human rights laws around privacy, human dignity, safety and a class of accountability (electronic person) much like a company, into a coherent (and legal) framework. Usually this kind of stuff would be thought up after the fact in the UK (and others), with the media storm of the first machines seen to cause actual harm bringing the quick-fire legal hammer down from Parliament, and yes, the latter is my preferred option, we already have nearly a 1000 years of laws about accountability, people releasing this stuff out in the wild should be aware of, ignorance of the law is no defence. Anyway they'll soon be able to argue their case see https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23130900-700-rage-against-the-machine-why-computers-need-to-argue-with-us/ [newscientist.com] in front of Judges. Though I've argued for a long time that theres a much more subtle issue here, some of my (fully) autonomous agents are liable to become over-conditioned over time, even exhibit ill defined potentially novel behaviours through what we call "inappropriate learning"; easy to spot in machines with a handful of behaviours, but difficult to fix. A yearly (weekly/nightly??) behaviour check (an MOT for Autonomous Agents) could work, but for machines with thousands of behaviours it could be complex and that would presume it wasn't outright lying or confabulating to you...
(Score: 2) by Rich on Monday January 16 2017, @06:42PM
I happened to see the 1995 Ghost in the Shell anime yesterday. Partly because I wanted to be informed about its origins when the real-actor adaption hits the screens later this year. The core of that story is utterly bang on the topic of these considerations. Could it be that it was some marketing activity that got these lowly (in terms of influence) and bored parlamentarians to produce such a paper? How much would it be? Maybe a few ten grand of grease? After all, it would be worth millions over millions when the 5-star reviews later on rave that the flick totally hits the pulse of the time, as reported by the BBC and the Guardian.
(And am I going nuts for assuming such a possibility? Maybe my tinfoil hat started an inward self-resonation?)
Or is it just bored lawyers pondering on how they can rule in their Teslas when they go on strike after some autonomy software update, demanding a shady parking space in summer, and a dry garage in winter?