I was watching a show on the History Channel (maybe Discovery) about robots, artificial intelligence (AI) and the like. They show covered the history of, what is available now, and what the near/far future holds. They had various scientists and tinkerers on talking about their contraptions of varying degrees of intelligence/automation.
Then the show started focusing on artificial intelligence and the advances we were making in that particular area. One of the scientists said that eventually robots will be able to "think" for themselves and operate completely autonomously. Meaning they wouldn't need us for anything. Then the scientist started talking about how it will be illegal to shut-down a robot, as it would be the equivolent of killing a human being because it operates independently, etc.
They also talked about how quickly the field is advancing and that they will soon know how to program AI to operate in a self-serving way. Number one priority being to protect itself, of course. This got me to thinking about "I Robot", "The Terminator", and the like.
I almost fell out of my chair after this scientist stated how he was going to push for robot rights, etc. He said that they will be almost just like humans in many ways. Then they started to get into the whole, "Is it a living thing," issue. If something can "think" for itself, it must be alive, etc.
I couldn't believe there were people espousing that drivel. Then I got to thinking that the premise of many movies could actually come to fruition. There will definitely be technology available to make it happen in the near future. They will produce the robots and they will probably try to put legislation through that they are our equals. The broken hearted liberals would chastise anyone who would not agree with them and the public would largely be ignored/made irrelavent, much like we are today concerning various issues. (Wait 'til the global warming crap really gets off the ground. Then we will see some absurd *expletive deleted*it.
If the time came that I couldn't permanently pull the batteries out of my latest toy, I believe it would be my time to punch my ticket, say my goodbyes, and completely remove myself from the grid. Move to some far away land, very likely another country, so far out in the boonies that no person or robot would ever know that I even existed.
Or maybe I am being too melodramatic? What do y'all think about it?