this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (19 children)

Well at least they aren't strapping guns to them like the US is.

Still, is it strange that I don't like the idea of making a whole class of robots to do our dirty work? I know I'm probably just anthropomorphising, but it feels wrong.

[–] Saeculum@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

If we had the ability to make a robot that had opinions about what work it did, we'd also have the ability to make it love that work beyond anything else.

[–] Nacarbac@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't think that actually follows. We'd certainly be in a position to practice and refine the process, but not necessarily guarantee that it's working until we give the (apologies for the Harry Potter reference, but I think it apt) Robot House Elf a pistol and turn around. Also, ethics.

Luckily the simple solution is to just not make a sapient slave race, robotic or otherwise. Sapience isn't necessary for an autonomous tool.

[–] Saeculum@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago

My point of view is that in humans and animals in general, emotions are largely a chemical response in the brain. We might not fully understand how those processes interact, but we do know that certain chemicals cause certain feelings, and that there is a mechanism in the brain governing emotion that is notionally separate from our ability for rational thought.

I am willing to concede that it might be possible for a sufficiently complex computer to accidentally or in a way not entirely within our understanding to develop the capacity for rational thought in a way that we would recognise as sapient, or at least animal level intelligence.

I am not willing to concede that such a computer could develop a capacity for what we recognise as emotion without it being intentionally designed in, and if it's designed we necessarily need to understand it. This happens in fiction a lot because it's more compelling to anthropomorphize AI characters, not because it's particularly plausible.

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