IP: Ethics for Machines

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2000 17:03:20 -0400
>To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber)
>From: Jean Armour Polly <mom@netmom.com>
>
>I found this on http://nanodot.org/  a Slashdot for nanotechnology and its 
>social effects.
>
>Ethics for Machines



>J. Storrs Hall, PhD.



>http://discuss.foresight.org/~josh/ethics.html
>"Suppose, instead, we can build (or become) machines that can not only run 
>faster, jump higher, dive deeper, and come up drier than we can, but have 
>moral senses similarly more capable? Beings that can see right and wrong 
>through the political garbage dump of our legal system; corporations one 
>would like to have as a friend (or would let ones daughter marry); 
>governments less likely to lie than your neighbor is. "
>
>"I could argue at length (but will not, here) that a society including 
>superethical machines would not only be better for people to live in, but 
>stronger and more dynamic than ours is today. What is more, not only 
>ethical evolution but most of the classical ethical theories, if warped to 
>admit the possibility, (and of course the religions!) seem to allow the 
>conclusion that having creatures both wiser *and morally superior* to 
>humans might just be a good idea."