RE: Do not treat any part of this universe like a slave. It is all beautiful, and I advise you to respect every aspect of it. Including machines.
It's hard to say where to draw the line. Is a cardboard cutout with a motorized waving arm a "robot"? Is a Roomba the mental equivalent of a mouse? An insect? Even a bacterium?
I draw the line at machines which actively try to self-preserve, and to obtain more energy when they need it. This means they don't go over ledges, they can seek out their charger when their battery gets low, or if they have solar cells then they have light-seeking behavior built in.
This is about as primitive as the will to survive gets, but it's also at the core of human consciousness, so it should count for something. That's the point where I think we start treating them as extremely rudimentary animals.
We can still have them in our home to do tasks for us since they are designed to, but it is unethical to simply throw them away when damaged or broken for the same reason we don't throw away living creatures we become tired of, or which become injured.
I'll respond to your comment here because of the nesting limit.
That's not the timescale we're talking about. We're all lucky to live another 20 years.
I'm aware, but it shows that the robots we see today have real potential to be as alive and conscious as we are, they are just in a very rudimentary stage of that process.
They do not deserve the same considerations as a human, but would you throw away a mouse as if it were trash when you became bored with it? What about a grasshopper? How simple does life have to be before it becomes disposable?
I think the way to deal with this issue is to continue to use machines, but to try to understand them.
We built them, and we know they don't protest or feel pain, or even think, but at the same time, I think it makes sense to treat things respectfully.
It'd be like roughly breaking branches off a living tree, just for fun, or even breaking a giant boulder for no good reason.
It's just an act of destruction or cruelty that doesn't really need to happen, even if we can still use trees to build things, or mine into rock for useful materials. The actual use of machines shouldn't be discouraged.
It's normal to use employees or other tools to get work done.
But just as an employer should treat an employee well, or a parent should treat a child well, or a farmer shouldn't abuse the farm animals beyond what's necessary for farming, the owner of a machine should treat the machine well.
I agree. Understanding for example that what makes a forklift robot "happy" is fulfilling the function it's designed to with minimal interruptions or other problems and being kept in good working order.
Having respect for tools, your car or any other machine is wisdom that predates the industrial revolution. You have to take care of it if you want it to take care of you.
Well said.
You too, this is a solid ass article. But coming from you that doesn't surprise me.