the study also revealed that humans would fly around with jetpacks and live on the moon

[rone]

London, England (AHN) - According to a study by the British government, the thin line between human and robot legal rights will apparently merge in future as the mechanic devices could one day demand the same legal rights assigned to people.

The report, written by British research company Ipsos-MOR for the U.K. Office of Science and Technology, said that the rights - if granted to the robots, would force countries to provide social benefits including housing and even "robo-healthcare."

About the only good thing i can say about this stultifying piece of "science" is that none of my tax money funded it.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

This kind of reminds me of that Scientology book in which people recount the adventures they had in their past lives millions of years ago--as Kibo remarked, it read exactly like what you'd expect if you just asked a bunch of random people not well-versed in the art to make up a science-fiction story.

[reddragdiva]

Have You Lived Before This Life?

[shawn-burns.livejournal.com]

According to a study by Shawn at the used book store down the street, the thin line between human and robot legal rights will apparently merge in future...

The report, written by Shawn and sourced by Isaac Asimov, said that the rights - if granted to the robots, would force countries to provide social benefits...

Furthermore, as sentient, physically superior beings capable of reproduction, the robots would eventually take over the world and enslave the human race, for their own good. Then they'd send one of their number back in time to kill Sarah Connor.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't worry, I've told John what they are planning to do to his mum. He said he's going to send his dad back to the past to deal with that pesky robot.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

The average robot is already a better citizen than, say, the average snarky commentor on a randomly selected LiveJournal, wouldn't you agree?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

DOES NOT COMPUTE.

And cars will fly and be powered by 'Mr Fusion' in 8 years time

[schmwarf.livejournal.com]

Why would you grant rights to non-living things? If it walks like a human, talks like a human etc that doesn't mean it "lives" like a human.

Does that mean we should also grant rights to interactive characters on a program?

Its good to know that UK taxpayers' money is put to good use.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I am glad to grant the possibility of an intelligence being created by man sometime in our future that doesn't involve fucking. The existence of such a thing is so far away that spending serious effort on speculating about the rights one should grant such a being is on par with trying to establish a faster-than-light speed limit within the Solar System. If such beings were to band together and demand rights, i would hesitate to call them "things"; after all, a thing cannot demand rights for itself.

As it is, there is some movement that is trying to grant apes some of the rights granted to humans, as if apes were somehow part of human society. That, to me, is more unsettling.

[schmwarf.livejournal.com]

I see....

Well I guess soon when I'm filtering job applications for engineering positions in my team in the future, I cannot reject any on the grounds they may be orangutans. But I could do so on the grounds that they shit everywhere.