Rights for AIs are not a problem

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Jan 16 2006 - 08:11:09 MST


This was solved 25 years ago by Alexis A. Gilliland in his space colony
trilogy,

     Revolution from Rosinante (1981)
     Long Shot for Rosinante (1981)
     The Pirates of Rosinante (1982)

Computers were among the characters in these stories, particularly
Skaskash, a master of strategic planning who (among other things) creates a
religion, Corporate Hulvey who was "the image of (meat person) Hulvey's
soul . . ." and Corporate Dr. Susan Brown who becomes an admiral of their
small fleet of warships.

Corporations already have legal rights, a company can own the hardware on
which the AI is implemented. Corporations can own stock, so a corporate AI
that owns a controlling block of stock in itself is a free agent with
effectively the same rights as meat persons.

If you have not read these books, you should. They are a bit dated by now,
but excellent.

Keith Henson



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