SF Conundrum
Mar. 1st, 2012 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoIs it unethical to build an AI with Focus?
(Focus is a Vingean construct, an induced monomania. It doesn't take away free will, but it makes a particular subject the most interesting thing in the universe -- worse than that, nothing sufficiently far from the subject is interesting at all. ADHD hyperfocus on exactly one thing. Savantism.)
(Focus is a Vingean construct, an induced monomania. It doesn't take away free will, but it makes a particular subject the most interesting thing in the universe -- worse than that, nothing sufficiently far from the subject is interesting at all. ADHD hyperfocus on exactly one thing. Savantism.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-01 09:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-01 09:29 pm (UTC)For example: is it "more cruel" to create an artificial construct within tight parameters, than it is to, say, raise a steak in a feedlot?
Is it more cruel to genetically modify a cow to be as stupid and placid as a fish, and then confine it to a feedlot?
What are the ethics? More than that, if such things are ethical when applied to devices, such as an AI, are they ethical when applied to animals? People?
I suspect there is an interesting SF story in here, where a Savant/Aspergers is offered a cure for his "illness", but he rejects it: he's happy memorizing facts about Lego and Lego construction, he has friends who share his passion (if not as peculiarly) and he fears not having a passion.
(Dim memory tells me that Gordon Dickson wrote a story of that sort, where people could try an experimental drug. Every now and then it produced a supergenius, about as often it made a vegetable, and most people got only modest changes. I'm sure the book is in one of the many unopened boxes in the basement...)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-01 09:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-01 09:38 pm (UTC)