Re: Ethics & Isaac Asimov

[Marin David Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>]

Talk about drifting off topic! ;-)

Asimov's laws are, of course, based on the assumption that machines
"think", have "identity" and can make moral decisions. This is, at best,
wishful thinking. It's a machine. You can't bargain with it or reason
with it. It doesn't feel pity or remorse... (place those lines if you
can! ;-) You can lead a computer to data, but you can't make it think.

And besides, who elected Asimov to be chief legislator of Robotic Law?
And who's he going to get to enforce that Robotic Law if I decide to
build robots willing to ignore the law and wage war against his pacifist
robots? Game over, man! (Tongue firmly planted in cheek...)

MDC

Tom Moran wrote:
> 
> If a thrown stone is allowed as a (particularly dumb) robot, then it
> surely may violate the first law, and the laws of physics may cause it
> to violate the human's *intent* in the second law (though we in
> computers have lots of experience with the difference between
> following a human's orders literally vs doing what he wanted).  The
> stone generally tries, to the best of its ability, not to violate the
> second law.  The same applies of course to other things (General
> Patton's car caused his death).
>   As to software, I suppose a copy of Pagemaker used to make a
> recruiting poster might eventually cause harm to a human, so, being
> very generous about interpreting words like "cause", software also can
> violate the first law.  Same as above re the second law, and software
> usually tries even less hard to obey the third law.
>   Perhaps Asimov's laws need a little work. ;)

-- 
Marin David Condic
Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines
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