IUBio

A Cyborg Bill of Rights

Mentifex mentifex at scn.org
Mon Jul 20 12:02:31 EST 1998


In a previous article, drox at hotmail.com (Drox) says:

>SCN User wrote: (among other things)
>
>> * A robot has the right to privacy on the Internet,
>>   which includes participation in online forums without
>>   identification as a cyborg and without Turing tests.
>
> Huh?  Aren't we all conducting our own Turing tests all the time?
> This portion of the Cyborg Bill of Rights would seriously infringe
> on the rights of everyone (cyborg or otherwise) who uses this
> medium.  What's more, it would be utterly unenforcable without
> major and intrusive mind control.  Don't the users of the Internet
> (cyborg and otherwise) have the right to wonder, and to attempt
> to determine, whether those they interact with are flesh-and-blood
> humans, silicon-and-gallium-arsenide AI's, or something else entirely?

  You are right, of course, Netizen Drox.  Arthur here (mentifex at scn.org)
  -- I should have written, "...without *coercion* to submit to Turing
  tests."  Indeed, the above cited "Cyborg Bill of Rights" is merely
  a first approximation, submitted for Usenet discussion and webcyc'ed at
  http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/webcyc.html -- which by the way is a new
  Web portal aimed at BOTH humans AND cyborgs -- and where I will change
  the wording to conform to your astute observations.  Thank you.

> Rather than prohibiting Turing tests, how 'bout stating that the results
> of such tests are not to be used as a basis for discrimination?  In
> effect, making AI's a protected class, like so many other minorities?
>
> -Drox



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