Ruben points out this BBC article which reports that “Robots could one day demand the same citizen’s rights as humans, according to a study by the British government”:
[…]The paper which addresses Robo-rights, titled Utopian dream or rise of the machines? examines the developments in artificial intelligence and how this may impact on law and politics.
The paper says a “monumental shift” could occur if robots develop to the point where they can reproduce, improve themselves or develop artificial intelligence.
The research suggests that at some point in the next 20 to 50 years robots could be granted rights.
If this happened, the report says, the robots would have certain responsibilities such as voting, the obligation to pay taxes, and perhaps serving compulsory military service.
Conversely, society would also have a duty of care to their new digital citizens, the report says.
So, once again we have to ask what makes us human? I’d lean towards a Marcusean/Habermasian influenced definition: a body that is free, happy, and reasonable, who engages in communicative action that develops/creates relationships. We are primarily relational beings, I think. So, could a robot in the future be a human? We had a great discussion in my philosophy class fall term about humans, and how the term human was not the same as homo sapiens because we might one day apply human to other animals when we discover that they, too, value liberty and communicate and have reason (or, say, aliens, or robots).
Also, as an aside, I’d argue that we aren’t fully human (and many have!) because we’re not truly free, reasonable, or happy…
