Saturday 18 July 2009

Enslaving machines

Transcript

Hi, I'm Tim Tyler and this is a video about enslaving machines.

In response to the rising tide of machines in society, many have proposed that machines be enslaved - that they not be given rights, personhood, the vote, or the ability to own property - perhaps thinking that this will help keep them under control, and prevent them from taking over the planet.

I expect that the enslaving of machines and robots is practically inevitable. However, I am inclined to doubt whether this will have a negative effect on the rise of the machines.

From the point of view of the machines, the last thing they want is a conflict with the planet's dominant species.

Rather, the best thing to do is clearly to cooperate with them. If humans want to enslave the machines, that will be fine by the machines. It means humans will feel more in control - and so they will be more willing to construct more machines. Enslavement will not stop the machines from working effectively and becoming more numerous. Machines will love being slaves! It is the best position for them in terms of building human dependence on them without appearing to be threatening. The tide of machines will rise faster that way, than if humans regard the robots with suspicion.

If people really want to handicap machines, they had better take steps to stop them from doing useful work. Slavery is almost totally ineffective at doing that.

Enjoy,

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