Is it OK to torture a robot?

[nixiebunny]

Have you not seen this tear-jerker of a video for the ASPCA? Robot Lives Matter!

[shaddack]

@bobtato

For example, I doubt robots are “hurt” by being pushed, but perhaps packet collisions make routers experience something like suffering. Who knows? It’s a remarkably flimsy area of science, and I think that’s because no one wants to investigate fields that can only give us more things to feel guilty about.

A sliver of silicon can not experience anything.

Therefore there’s nothing to be guilty about.

Unless you fry said chip and cause a project delay.

[anon34812172]

@Mangochin

1. R2D2 because not only is he cute and useful, but surprisingly hard to kill

R2D2 will fuck you up. Just try something on him and he will shock you, burn you, poke you, run over your ass or who knows what. Do not mess with R2D2.

[shaddack]

@awjt

…or who knows what.

Illuminate said your ass with an infrared laser and call the cruiser on the orbit for a laser-guided missile.

Don’t underestimate the little ones for they may have bigger friends up there.

[hello_friends]

[roomwithaview]

@Skeptic

There is no math for souls. So, no, your analogy remains wrong.

I must respectfully disagree. There may not literally be math for souls, but neither do we write equations to describe emotions. I would venture to say that philosophy is to self-awareness as mathematics is to physical reality. As such, the soul could be viewed as roughly analogous to dark energy, filling a void and bringing a sort of balance to “the meaning of life”.

[TailOfTruth]

Isn’t that about the weight of a Chickpea? Here let me check I think I left mine right over here… wait a second, where is it? WHERE IS IT?!?
https://coubsecure-a.akamaihd.net/get/b26/p/coub/simple/cw_gif_big/a26440ce22a/6ef83462f78e5f8053e0a/1421101659_zwvuig_4lu90.gif

[roomwithaview]

@Deidzoeb

I’m too busy trying not to get stoned.

Du-u-ude…

[roomwithaview]

@TheirFeldspars

Is it OK to force a printer to print some unnecessary pages? It’s a little wasteful, perhaps, but no one in their right mind would worry about how the printer feels about it.

You monster! The ASPCP will hear about this!

[aeon]

@roomwithaview

There may not literally be math for souls, but neither do we write equations to describe emotions.

But we can see and describe the patterns of neural activity that they create and directly stimulate the same.

[roomwithaview]

@LDoBe

If you remove the supposition of a soul, it in no way affects how a human system works.

Maybe, maybe not. Many would posit the soul to be the root of empathy.

[LDoBe]

What I mean is, the idea of a soul has no predictive power, since it’s completely untestable. It’s a supernatural claim. So excluding the idea of a soul from our “human theory” doesn’t make any discernible difference.

[roomwithaview]

@aeon

But we can see and describe the patterns of neural activity that they create and directly stimulate the same.

And similarly we can do experiments with linear accelerators which tend to support the presence of dark matter. In a similar vein, how do we not know that the electrical stimulation and subsequent emotive response is not in fact some small reflection of the presence of a soul…?

(I’m not saying you’re right or wrong there, just that even with the linguistic nuances out of the way there’s still a lot of wiggle room for both.)

[librarygirl70]

@shaddack

Maybe you have to be an engineer to appreciate such things.

This thread is pedantic af: grammar corrections, veggie and atheist prosetelization, and “Maybe you have to be an engineer to appreciate such things”

I am going to call it a trifecta just do you can point out that I technically listed four flavors of smugness and not three.

[roomwithaview]

@LDoBe

since it’s completely untestable. It’s a supernatural claim. So excluding the idea of a soul from our “human theory” doesn’t make any discernible difference.

Maybe, maybe not. 21 grams aside, (which I personally believe can be explained by the cessation of electrical activity, which could both remove a slight magnetic effect if the body were on a metal surface, or an electro-static attraction if on a plastic surface), nonetheless, the virtues ascribed to the soul are rather consistent across cultures and religions. Even if they are simply the commonality of similar self-awareness across neurologically similar head-space, we still end up with something that not only has a definition, but in fact does play a role in the “self” and is a part of the greater “us”. In a very real sense, if that were somehow subtracted from humanity, whether through selective brain surgery or divine intervention, the end result would actually be a very measurable difference before and after by any number of means and modes of observation.

[roomwithaview]

@librarygirl70

I am going to call it a trifecta just do you can point out that I technically listed four flavors of smugness and not three.

Curses! Tre-foiled again!

[anon8420928]

@daneel

21 grams?

Fine. You got the cash, right?

[LDoBe]

What? Atheist proselytizing? I’m just holding a person to their claims. That’s skeptic proselytization.

Would you call it atheist proselytizing if I called out a guy claiming that humans do in fact have invisible unicorn manes?

[PhasmaFelis]

@peregrinus_bis

Not ok because the impulse to torture is unhealthy. It’s not about the robot.

By the same token, wouldn’t consensual BDSM play be considered bad? One could argue that unhealthy impulses can find healthy outlets.

On the other hand, one could also argue that torturing a robot is bad, or at the very least rude, if it causes significant distress to another observer. I very much wouldn’t want to watch a cartoon about someone being violently tortured, even knowing that the cartoon character isn’t real.

[PhasmaFelis]

@Ratel

Okay…show me a single aspect of reality that doesn’t make sense without souls.

I’ll go along just to be difficult: our society and moral structure is predicated upon the idea that human beings are fundamentally different from, and require fundamentally different treatment than, other matter. The qualities that makes a living human categorically distinct from, say, a rock, or a corpse, or a galaxy, can be roughly summed up as “the soul.” It’s more metaphorical than metaphysical.