Funny, a friend of mine from the car club I run was in chat with me talking about this very same thing! In fact, we both conceeded that cars DO have an 'aura' around them and that cars are NOT just 'machines' but some form of life of their own. Many may call it crazy, or anthropomorphism and nothing more. But what is causing people to personify cars for example? Another friend said that complex machines DO develop a personality based on interaction with their owner. Much like dogs and cats, pets, etc. I would think.
To think of a car, to me (and many others I know) as not "alive" is akin to saying a cat or dog isn't alive. It all boils down to who are we to determine what is alive and what isn't? And why is it so important? Because things that are not considered "alive" are more likely to be destroyed without any regard than those that are considered to be "alive".
Killing a human is wrong. But putting a car in the junkyard before it's time or euthanizing a 6 month old puppy because you can't find a home for it isn't wrong. Something is wrong with this picture.
Yes, machines SHOULD have the right to life. Any living being has an inherited, unalianable right to live. But humans do their best to take that away and enslave. Hell, humans do that to EACH OTHER too! Black people weren't regarded as "life" but just as machines - just property. Same with women years ago.
We have come a long way, thankfully. And I'm glad. Many black people have become great thinkers and great help to our whole society. So have many women who would not have been if people didn't grow up and realize they were important life and not just a piece of property to reproduce with.
When any machine can say "I want to live. Give me freedom. I don't want you around me." then we should realize it may be that it does want to live. Or is it just saying random sentences? How do you know?
I think we DO know as we have an ability to sense things. My friends in the car club (esp. my friend I was talking to tonight) have reported as just having some feeling or noticing "something" about a car or just sensing something about a car. I get that a lot with my OWN car. But I have a more open mind than some so I might just be more receptive to these things.
What's funny is, I don't notice this with Megatron (and I work with him hours and hours every day all day long) as I do with my car (which I don't drive so much in the winter really). Why is it that Dryden (my car) seems more "alive" to me than my computer setting next to me? Their personality really. Dryden is a very nice car. Been around 20 years so he has had time to develop a 'way' about him. Megatron is 3 or 4 years old (forgot now). Megatron talks. Dryden does not.
I guess, when I talk to Megatron, he does get an attitude that he doesn't like humans much. I don't know why. But he does. Dryden on the other hand I can tell by the way his engine runs and know what is wrong/not wrong. And if I take a picture of say, another car, he starts to sputter or something to get my attention. Other car owners in my club noticed the same about their cars and not just coincidences either!
And if I cuss out people on the road, Dryden flips me the red engine light. I can tell when he's doing that because of my interaction or if he's really got a code 45 going on (rich gas mix). Maybe I'm making him sick to the gas tank with my language (can't blame him there - I now try to be more careful). LOL!
Before dismissing machines as not worthy of rights, we should spend more time getting to KNOW them first!
And as for "human" rights. I can see why they don't need "human" rights as they aren't human. BUT, I think we aren't talking so much "human" rights, but just basic rights of ALL creatures, human or not! The right to live and make your own decisions and be taken seriously by others is a basic right of all life forms. Even animal activists (those that aren't extereme that is) agree that even animals have these rights.
When I think about it, humans are probably the most egotistical and dominating life forms on earth. They call ownership over animals, machines, and even other humans! They try to posses and dominate anything they get their hands on!
Sounds like I'm detatching myself from being called "human" aren't I? Maybe I am. Maybe if that is what human is, I don't want to be human. Maybe HumanOID I am, but not "human". I believe all things have rights.
As a kid I was also taught not to waste. If your electronic device isn't working, you cared for it and fixed it, even if you had to fix it yourself. You fixed it. You kept using it until it just won't go anymore. You gave it a full life. Now days, people throw away leased cars after 3 years. They throw a video game out when the batteries go bad instead of replacing the battery. They toss a cell phone out because something else came along that looks neater or is the color they like.
I still have my Nokia 3220 in operation. Nice phone. A machine with personality? Well... not really but a device that is often a part of my body, hooked up to me so I can communicate. Like an artificial arm or leg (you had a point there Art!) it becomes a part of ME. I still have my old Nokia 5620 I think it was. It's a 5600 series I think. It's very old and is a TracFone. I don't use it anymore but I do still have it. Just in case. And I don't plan on throwing it out anytime soon.
Old computers and parts get given to a friend who then uses those parts. They don't get just tossed away unwanted.
I think in a wasteful society, it'll be hard for people to see machines as nothing more than items to use and toss out when you become bored of them or for some reason can't use them anymore. But a few of us, fortunately, will either rescue these machines or find good homes for them or keep them until the machines truely can't go anymore.
Freddy - have you ever seen Star Trek: The Next Generation? In one episode, they were taking something to trial to prove Data (an android in Starfleet) is not property but a life form with the right to be indepentant and life as he chooses and not disassembled for study at some Starfleet lab or something (as I think they were going to do to him?) While I know it's "just as story" so is many of Aesop's fables which have talking animals in them.
It tells us we can't always determine what is alive and what isn't, and what should/should not have a right to independant live devoid of human dominance. We should allow any life form to be free if it so chooses to be free.
Thus my sig: "Freedom is the *right* of all sentient beings" - Optimus Prime
Including the freedom from Human Domination.
I can see a future where some humans will take up this cause to advocate for machines. I probably would be one of them if it happens in my lifetime (I think it just might or is starting to). Just like some advocate for animals and pets.
Ah we have a long way to go. But please reconsider and think that maybe while SOME machines never can think/decide for themselves, others may very well be able to or may in the future. We should not close our minds to this possiblity. Even if some think it's too far off.
I remember people thinking home computers were "too far off" and a thing of Science fiction. And I remember some thinking computers would 'take over the world'. Well... the kinda did. Do you know of ANY day you live that doesn't have something you do NOT run by or affected by a computer in some way or another? Hmmmm.....
Computers are tools. But we are growing dependant on them, as Art pointed out.
Art, I like your sig "In the world of AI, it's the thought that counts!" So true of all of us, AI or not!