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Universal Rights in the Age of AI
Human rights are a contentious issue - while many nations signed the UN Declaration on Human Rights, that consensus only formed because the Declaration doesn’t specify where rights come from. How can the definition and origin of “universal” rights grapple with the rise of general artificial intelligence? What rights are inherent to people made of small, sub-sentient devices scattered across an asteroid belt, or to algorithms of commercial origin? Will the AIs think we deserve rights, or will they resent slow meat-brained humans passing judgment on them?
Hirotaka Osawa – Professor, human-agent interaction, including development of anthropomorphic devices, simulation for social agent using social games, and humanity studies using science fictions. His own research focuses on how human-like appearance and attitude improves interaction between a user and machines.
L.J. Kendall – self-published writer
Barbara Howe – Writer, fantasy
Benjamin C. Kinney – Assistant Editor, Escape Pod
Mikko Rauhala – Writer, SF, crossover
While Osawa and Rauhala are the only two in the group who have anything to do with science fiction and AI, I’m sure the discussion was lively! It should be at any rate, because once robots, AI, and clones take over the world (in an event some believe will be called the Singularity. Some people look forward to it the way some Christians look forward to the Rapture – all their worries will be over because someone better than them will take over. Of course, a problem both ideas overlook is that the person so hoping it will happen has no GUARANTEE of being someone who survives long enough to…um…SEE it happen.)
I would have loved to have listened in on this one as my work in progress, MARTIAN HOLIDAY, looks at the question of rights for non-Humans. In it, I have both clones who are marked by being unable to reproduce on their own and have blue skin; and an AI who is struggling with belief in God – and also has no legal rights.
My blurb is, “On a well-settled Mars, the five major city Council regimes struggle to meld into a stable, working government. Embracing an official Unified Faith In Humanity, the Councils are teetering on the verge of pogrom directed against Christians, Molesters, Jews, Rapists, Buddhists, Murderers, Muslims, Thieves, Hindu, Embezzlers Artificial Intelligences, and Artificial Humans – anyone who threatens the official Faith and the consolidating power of the Councils. It makes good sense, right – get rid of religion and Human divisiveness on a societal level will disappear? An instrument of such a pogrom might just be a Roman holiday...”
Actually, the AI only showed up as an actual character recently, and didn’t refuse the name Aadesh, so I let them stay. Aadesh is a Hindi word for “instruction”. While I sort of knew that when I tagged the character, the name has grown more appropriate as they become a sort of advisor for Paolo, a character who is based somewhat on Paul the Apostle. Paul had many people who helped him, and my character, while he’s had people help him, doesn’t really have any “friends”.
This will likely be the closest he comes to a friend. At least it seems to be what’s happening. Aadesh was exiled, albeit temporarily, from the capitol of Mars, Bradbury Dome. While it wasn’t the first, it IS the most central and it became a sort of hub for the civilization of the Five Domes of Mars. There are somewhere around four million people on Mars at this time, with a number of cultures as well. It’s not clear to me if Artificial Humans and Artificial Intelligences are counted in that number, if NOT, then there are probably another million or so, though an AI can live pretty much anywhere.
While it sometimes appears to me that some people are looking to AIs as some sort of “savior” of Humanity. In the MARVEL movie universe, one of those civilizations, the Krell have the Supreme Intelligence, which is artificial and rules them, at least somewhat benevolently. So, while it’s a “god”, is it a Krell? The question isn’t addressed, but Captain Mar-Vell beats it and at least frees herself.
It's clear that by the time of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the Krell are under the guidance of Thanos.
OK, enough, the question here was “Will the AIs think we deserve rights, or will they resent slow meat-brained humans passing judgment on them?” For some reason, Humans appear to be making AIs in their own image – as Humans have attempted to with God since Genesis.
We somehow think that any AI civilization will even care about us!
We assume they’ll think we’re a threat that they must “defend themselves” from. But, if the imagination of the average unbeliever is that limited and figure that AIs will be as easily dismissed as God, or that we’ll be “as gods to them”, then their imaginations are wimpier than I thought they were.
Hirotaka Osawa – Professor, human-agent interaction, including development of anthropomorphic devices, simulation for social agent using social games, and humanity studies using science fictions. His own research focuses on how human-like appearance and attitude improves interaction between a user and machines.
L.J. Kendall – self-published writer
Barbara Howe – Writer, fantasy
Benjamin C. Kinney – Assistant Editor, Escape Pod
Mikko Rauhala – Writer, SF, crossover
While Osawa and Rauhala are the only two in the group who have anything to do with science fiction and AI, I’m sure the discussion was lively! It should be at any rate, because once robots, AI, and clones take over the world (in an event some believe will be called the Singularity. Some people look forward to it the way some Christians look forward to the Rapture – all their worries will be over because someone better than them will take over. Of course, a problem both ideas overlook is that the person so hoping it will happen has no GUARANTEE of being someone who survives long enough to…um…SEE it happen.)
I would have loved to have listened in on this one as my work in progress, MARTIAN HOLIDAY, looks at the question of rights for non-Humans. In it, I have both clones who are marked by being unable to reproduce on their own and have blue skin; and an AI who is struggling with belief in God – and also has no legal rights.
My blurb is, “On a well-settled Mars, the five major city Council regimes struggle to meld into a stable, working government. Embracing an official Unified Faith In Humanity, the Councils are teetering on the verge of pogrom directed against Christians, Molesters, Jews, Rapists, Buddhists, Murderers, Muslims, Thieves, Hindu, Embezzlers Artificial Intelligences, and Artificial Humans – anyone who threatens the official Faith and the consolidating power of the Councils. It makes good sense, right – get rid of religion and Human divisiveness on a societal level will disappear? An instrument of such a pogrom might just be a Roman holiday...”
Actually, the AI only showed up as an actual character recently, and didn’t refuse the name Aadesh, so I let them stay. Aadesh is a Hindi word for “instruction”. While I sort of knew that when I tagged the character, the name has grown more appropriate as they become a sort of advisor for Paolo, a character who is based somewhat on Paul the Apostle. Paul had many people who helped him, and my character, while he’s had people help him, doesn’t really have any “friends”.
This will likely be the closest he comes to a friend. At least it seems to be what’s happening. Aadesh was exiled, albeit temporarily, from the capitol of Mars, Bradbury Dome. While it wasn’t the first, it IS the most central and it became a sort of hub for the civilization of the Five Domes of Mars. There are somewhere around four million people on Mars at this time, with a number of cultures as well. It’s not clear to me if Artificial Humans and Artificial Intelligences are counted in that number, if NOT, then there are probably another million or so, though an AI can live pretty much anywhere.
While it sometimes appears to me that some people are looking to AIs as some sort of “savior” of Humanity. In the MARVEL movie universe, one of those civilizations, the Krell have the Supreme Intelligence, which is artificial and rules them, at least somewhat benevolently. So, while it’s a “god”, is it a Krell? The question isn’t addressed, but Captain Mar-Vell beats it and at least frees herself.
It's clear that by the time of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the Krell are under the guidance of Thanos.
OK, enough, the question here was “Will the AIs think we deserve rights, or will they resent slow meat-brained humans passing judgment on them?” For some reason, Humans appear to be making AIs in their own image – as Humans have attempted to with God since Genesis.
We somehow think that any AI civilization will even care about us!
We assume they’ll think we’re a threat that they must “defend themselves” from. But, if the imagination of the average unbeliever is that limited and figure that AIs will be as easily dismissed as God, or that we’ll be “as gods to them”, then their imaginations are wimpier than I thought they were.
I’ve said elsewhere that the absolute worst thing that would happen to Humanity, whether the Singularity occurs as expected or it turns out that there are Aliens Out There or anything else that has supernatural origins in our psyches that we attempt to replace God with – is that THEY WILL IGNORE US AS WE IGNORE MOST AMEOBA.
No matter how much we jump up and down in front of them, what if they ignore us? (Which I would do if I found myself a “deity-substitute”. We may be tempted to flash how badly we’ve harmed the earth, and while I have no doubt that the climate of Earth is changing, I find it highly suspect that we’re so intent on naming ourselves as both destroyers and saviors of the planet. We replaced God with ourselves, and thus far, we’re not doing a real bang up job of becoming our own Saviors; so we have to settle for second-best and become the Destroyers Of Humanity! But we can’t even quite get that right – at least we don’t seem to be able to agree on anything without cursing anyone who disagrees with up rather than TRYING to discuss things like rational Human beings…)
At any rate, I like the idea of AI – I think C3PO and R2D2 are great. They are neither awed by Humans nor are they afraid of Humans, and often find them harmless but amusing. Will AIs have a sense of humor? Will they be able to believe in a god? Will they be able to CONVERT TO A HUMAN RELIGION? (Oddly, I had a thought when I created Aadesh. I have NO idea how other religions will look at aliens, clones, and AIs converting to them, but the fact that Jesus Himself was only half-Human and half-God would strengthen the argument that AIs, clones, artificial Humans, aliens can become Christian converts. I’m going to have this happen in MARTIAN HOLIDAY as those entities converting to the somewhat short-sighted United Faith in Humanity seems a bit…shortsighted…)
Oddly enough, most of the images depicting AI frame in terms of some kind of “super-dee-dooper-dee HUMAN brain…We’ll see how far that gets us. This is one of the few that depict it as specifically NOT-Human.
Program Book: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/conzealand/en/conzealand/schedule
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