[Gatac]

Difficult.

Currently, robots are neither self-aware nor living. I can see how both would be possible, though.

I'm not certain you can "control" a self-aware robot. You can give him guidelines or orders, but I think the point is that a self-aware robot doesn't need to be controlled - it can make it's own judgements. It is in our best interests to provide a framework of principles so that its judgement benefits us, but creating a robot that is both fully self-aware and directly under our thumb is inefficient and cruel - it could just as well be done by a less-developed robot. Like I said, if we get there, we'll *want* a robot that can think (relatively) freely. Heck, there's good money riding on making it think as free as we can - who knows, AI may come up with some interesting ideas that a human would never get.

Do we have the right to create AI, if we can? Yes. The potential benefit for mankind is far too great to just outright ban AI; I'm sure there'll be some squabbling over what you can and can't do, but it's becoming clearer to me that technological development cannot be regulated as tightly as some people think. If you can come up with an idea, somebody else can, too. And there's always people willing to break laws if they think they'll benefit from it. Unless you want to go around assassinating everyone who develops a workable AI, you won't stop it. From this, I guess it doesn't follow directly that we have a *right* to do this - but I do think it follows that we have a *responsibility* to do it correctly.

Who says God can't exist if we create AI? We've archieved so much, and He apparently hasn't seen fit to smite us yet. When the bible says that God created us in His image, it makes me think that what He really wants is for His children to grow up - like any good parent.

Same thing with souls. I don't believe in them, but I see no reason why AI would disprove them. First off, we don't know what a soul is, so it could very well be that with creating AI, we also create souls. Even if we don't, all we've proven is that you can make intelligence without souls, but that doesn't mean we don't have them. It's the same argument as saying that we share common ancestors with other primates somehow makes us less special and "soulless". It just doesn't logically follow.

Gatac