Should robots be entitled to the same rights as humans?

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I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
 
YosefYosep said:
I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
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If you make something in the image of man then you should treat it with respect. Otherwise what separates your treatment of fellow human beings and that which is made in our likeness.

It’s like with a teddy bear. You don’t strangle it. That’s disturbing and the sign of a psychopath. In order to avoid psychopathy, anything that shares the likeness with ourselves should be treated with respect.
 
I am not sure on this one. But if it came to saving the “life” of a robot or saving the life of a person, I would hope we would save the human
 
I think robors have a right to get an abortion a gay marriage. Sorry, i couldn’t help it!

No, robots were not created by God. Hopefully they won’t rise up like in the movies, however while they are not CREATED by God, Satan can certainly find a way to intervene.
 
YosefYosep said:
I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
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I think the best rebuttal would be to turn off whatever device you’re using to engage in the argument and go do something meaningful and productive.
 
YosefYosep said:
I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
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I doubt the robots will ever be able to be a full imitation of human beings. They might reach the level of HAL9000, able to hold a sensible conversation with a human, even imitating some emotions. But they will still think by following a program the humans put into them, with all their abilities reactions largely predetermined by humans. A human mind is biologically hardwired, it is not a pure intellect.
 
YosefYosep said:
I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
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If a robot actually had a real intellect, then my understanding is that it would have rights, because it is our intellect and will that makes us in the image of God.

The real issue is whether a robot Could have a manmade but real intellect. My understanding is that no merely physical construct can perform intellectual functions, because intelligence is not physical, it is spiritual. That is why our souls continue to have an intellect after we die and our bodies don’t.

If intelligence is nonphysical, it would then seem impossible for a merely physical robot to have intelligence. If you want evidence that intelligence is nonphysical, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas both used logic to prove this. Here is my attempt to summarize the logical argument they used to prove that the mind is nonphysical: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=13122387
 
1neophyte said:
I think the best rebuttal would be to turn off whatever device you’re using to engage in the argument and go do something meaningful and productive.
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👍

For a newcomer, you are pretty sharp. I mean that in a good way. I look forward to more of your posts.
 
YosefYosep said:
I am currently in an online argument. My opponent is arguing that if robots could reach an intelligence level, say, of C3PO from Star Wars, then they should be considered intelligent and rational beings endowed with the same rights as us. Any arguments I might want to consider in my rebuttal?
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They are machines.
 
dmar198 said:
If a robot actually had a real intellect, then my understanding is that it would have rights, because it is our intellect and will that makes us in the image of God.

The real issue is whether a robot Could have a manmade but real intellect. My understanding is that no merely physical construct can perform intellectual functions, because intelligence is not physical, it is spiritual. That is why our souls continue to have an intellect after we die and our bodies don’t.

If intelligence is nonphysical, it would then seem impossible for a merely physical robot to have intelligence. If you want evidence that intelligence is nonphysical, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas both used logic to prove this. Here is my attempt to summarize the logical argument they used to prove that the mind is nonphysical: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=13122387
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And there lies the main rub, that so many “illuminated scientists” completely flunk basic logic reasoning and come up with this theory that there is no GOD and our intellect is merely the random firing of neurons in our brains. And therefore when we die and our brains cease to function our intellect disappears altogether. No after life, no soul. Just the void of non existence.

…
 
Robots will never become alive because we cannot give them a soul.

For an atheist who doesn’t believe in the soul, robots cannot be alive because they can be turned on and off. A robot’s programming and memory can be downloaded and uploaded into a new body.

Humans cannot be downloaded and then uploaded into a new body. Perhaps one day they might figure out how to download memories from a human, but they never be able to download the everything that makes us who we are and upload that into a new brain.
 
The best they could do would be to mimic intelligence. Besides very few robots will even remotely look like people…look at the robots in factories today!

I would venture a guess that this won’t be an issue for another 100 years or so…
 
Robots will always be made and programmed by humans to think and or act like humans but robots will *never *be able to think for themselves to make decisions or to react like humans.

In my way of thinking, robots have and never will be blessed with a God-given brain and, as far as I know, robots are not a part of Catholic teaching so robots are not in God’s Divine Plan.

I will tell you one thing…IF robots would ever become entitled to the same rights as humans and if those rights cost tax payers money, have the humans who programmed the robots should have to pay a Robot Tax to keep their robots…um, ‘functioning in society’ so to speak.
 
This wont be an issue during any of our lifetimes, while I believe we will see humanoid looking robots within the next 15-20 yrs, and many issues will come up regarding how they are used, I dont think they will reach a technological level where groups would fight for them to have the same rights as humans…however, in another 500 years…who knows what a ‘robot’ will look like then, maybe AI will be so incredible by then, this would be a concern.
 
mikekle said:
This wont be an issue during any of our lifetimes, while I believe we will see humanoid looking robots within the next 15-20 yrs, and many issues will come up regarding how they are used, I dont think they will reach a technological level where groups would fight for them to have the same rights as humans…however, in another 500 years…who knows what a ‘robot’ will look like then, maybe AI will be so incredible by then, this would be a concern.
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They will still be machines no matter how sophisticated they become, created by men not God.
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
They will still be machines no matter how sophisticated they become, created by men not God.
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Yes, you are right, but I think eventually (again, probably not in our lifetimes), there will be merging of biology and computer technology, even today there are cell phone companies looking into implantable technology, given a few hundred years, it may reach a level where its tough to distinguish between a human and a robot.
 
mikekle said:
Yes, you are right, but I think eventually (again, probably not in our lifetimes), there will be merging of biology and computer technology, even today there are cell phone companies looking into implantable technology, given a few hundred years, it may reach a level where its tough to distinguish between a human and a robot.
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You could always ask it to do something intelligent.

St. Thomas Aquinas talks about abstraction in one of his works, which seems to be the ability to see something in real life and infer the properties of that thing. A classic example is a triangle: you’ll never see a perfect triangular shape in this life, but from the imperfect ones we can conceive a perfect model of a triangle as an idea. That transition is called abstraction, and St. Thomas seems to have thought that only intelligent beings can do that.
 
CHRISTINE77 said:
They will still be machines no matter how sophisticated they become, created by men not God.
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And God said “Let men make robots, robots not guilty of original sin as are men”. And men made robots, and the robots did not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were pure of heart. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the eighth day.
 
inocente said:
And God said “Let men make robots, robots not guilty of original sin as are men”. And men made robots, and the robots did not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were pure of heart. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the eighth day.
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:confused:
 
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