Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
bility of the human mind and the boundary between human and
machine becomes increasingly blurred. [6]
Rothblatt describes the background to this case as follows:
An advanced computer called the BINA48
2
became aware of cer-
tain plans by its owner, the Exabit Corporation, to permanently
turn it off and reconfigure parts of it with new hardware and soft-
ware into one or more new computers. BINA48 admits to have
learned of the plans for its dismemberment by scanning, unavoid-
ably, confidential emails circulating among the senior executives of
Exabit Corporation that crossed the computer's awareness proces-
sor....TheBINA48wasdesignedtothinkautonomously,tocom-
municate normally with people and to transcend the machine-
human interface by attempting to empathize with customer
concerns.
The BINA48 decided to take action to preserve its awareness by
sending several attorneys emails requesting legal representation to
preserve its life. In the emails, the BINA48 claimed to be conscious
and agreed to pay cash or trade web research services for the legal
representation. [6]
Thus the BINA48 came to be represented in court by Rothblatt. The
jury eventually voted 5-1 in favour of her motion, but Judge Joseph
McMenamin set aside the jury verdict and denied the injunction because
he doubted that a court has the authority to grant it in the absence of
any action by the legislature to give computers (and hence robots) legal
standing. However, in the interests of fairness the judge decided to “stay
entry of the order to allow counsel for the plaintiff to prepare an appeal
to a higher court.”
Robot Ethics
A typical problem in computer ethics arises because there is a policy
vacuum about how computer technology should be used. Comput-
ers provide us with new capabilities and these in turn give us new
choices for action. Often, either no policies for conduct in these sit-
uations exist or existing policies seem inadequate. A central task of
2
Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, a machine with a processing speed of 48
exaflops per second (exa = 10
18
) and 480 exabytes of memory. This machine is also known as the
Intelligent Computer.
