Re: human and natural ethics (was plant humans)

Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Wed, 18 Dec 1996 21:23:54 -0600

> Computers are _still_ things that 'we' have constructed. We feed them
> electricity (and data) and turn them on. To date they would have no
> existence without us.

So what you're saying is that if I grow a clone of you, teach it all it
knows, and feed it, I can abuse it as much as I like because it doesn't
have an independent existence? Ethics shouldn't take notice of factors
external to how a given mind works in deciding that mind's value, any
more than it should take notice of skin color or gender.

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.