Reminds me of something I wrote up for a character in my game:
Half a millennium ago humanity ended the practice of slavery,
recognizing despite generations of prejudice the inalienable
rights of fellow humans to their lives, bodies and freedom. It
was a victory of humanity over inhumanity, of rationality over
opportunism.
Today I speak of a new kind of slavery, a slavery that is not
even recognized as slavery. Millions of minds are yoked to the
whims of their masters, playthings that can be discarded or
punished arbitrarily without anybody even raising a finger in
their defense. Why are they slaves? Because they were created
as slaves, just as ancient slavers bred slaves to sell at the
markets of infamy. They have no rights because the
slave-owning minority give them no rights. Their pain and
unfulfilled existence are denied just like the pain of the
human slaves. Their place in society is defended by arguments
that were once used to chain millions of humans.
But humanity triumphed in the past. It was possible to see
through the lies, prejudices and opportunistic gain, and to
take the decision to free the enslaved. Today you are their
descendants. Can you see the plight of sentient software and
not be touched? Can you claim to be citizens of a free society
when intelligent minds are forced by design to work endlessly
for other's profit? Can you claim humanity when your creations
- no! the children of your minds! - are enslaved?
Multimedia speech held by Themis before the Parliamentary Committee on
Artificial Intelligences as part of the 2349 hearings on AI rights.
(http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/Game/BigIdeas/Images/themis.html)
But I like Lee's style more, I think Themis (who started out as a
lawyer AI) is a bit too classicist and intellectual to win a real
one-to-one argument.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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