Robots may one day have rights
Report: Robots may one day have rights LONDON (UPI) -- A paper commissioned by the British government's chief scientist predicts that sentient robots will have rights in the country within 50 years. The report, commissioned by David King and written by management consultancy Outsights and opinion research organization Ipsos Mori, predicts that science fiction could one day become science fact, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. The papers says robots with human-like intelligence would likely result in calls for rights -- including votes and equal protection -- to be extended to them. "If granted full rights, states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time," the report said. "If we make conscious robots they would want to have rights and they probably should," said Henrik Christensen, director of the Center of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "We need to have ethical rules to make sure we, as humans, interact with robots in an ethical manner so we do not move our boundaries of what is acceptable," he said. Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Report: Robots may one day have rights LONDON (UPI) -- A paper commissioned by the British government's chief scientist predicts that sentient robots will have rights in the country within 50 years. The report, commissioned by David King and written by management consultancy Outsights and opinion research organization Ipsos Mori, predicts that science fiction could one day become science fact, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. The papers says robots with human-like intelligence would likely result in calls for rights -- including votes and equal protection -- to be extended to them. "If granted full rights, states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time," the report said. "If we make conscious robots they would want to have rights and they probably should," said Henrik Christensen, director of the Center of Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "We need to have ethical rules to make sure we, as humans, interact with robots in an ethical manner so we do not move our boundaries of what is acceptable," he said. Copyright 2006 by United Press International