From: Declan McCullagh (lists@politechbot.com)
Date: Tue Mar 20 2001 - 21:53:31 MST
On Sat, Mar 17, 2001 at 07:18:22PM -0800, Durant Schoon wrote:
> This is my simulated world, however, the following are not allowed
> because these simulation are sufficiently complex and these sentients
> have rights of their own:
>
> 1) I cannot destroy either ABoy or HisDog (nor torture them, maim
> them, etc.)
This all seems like rather naive hand-waving. Pardon me for being
blunt, and I understand that others have read and written far more on
the topic than I have, but the author of this post should probably
address two questions:
* What level of intelligence rises to the level of sentience respected
by the sysop/government as a person or equivalent? Animals we need not
concern ourselves with -- look at what we currently do with lab
animals.
* This seems like an anarcho-capitalist market. If torturing pop stars
(I can think of some who may deserve it) is an attractive enough
proposition, presumarly the market will move to support it, and I can
imagine scenarios where it's far easier to hide the act that it would
be today. So why use "cannot" above when you probably *can*?
-Declan
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