BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?

In the discussion on my post on computer consciousness from the other day, my friend amanimal just provided the following link:

BBC – Future – Technology – Is it OK to torture or murder a robot?.

I think this powerfully corroborates my thesis in that post, but it also illustrates that I might have been too conservative in estimating when people would start believing that the machines were conscious.  You’re generally not going to be concerned about the rights of an entity that you don’t see as being conscious to at least some degree.

Related articles

• Robot shepherds herd cows in Australia (worldbulletin.net)
• Armed Robots May Outnumber Human Soldiers Soon (sparkonit.com)
• When Humanoid Robots Become Real – A Future Timeline (buildtheenterprise.org)
• Students Build Cute Robot of ‘Fembot’ Singer Robyn (mukeshbalani.wordpress.com)
• Suppose You Build a Conscious Robot. . . (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)