A “speculative paper”–and here “speculative” should be read as “pulling stuff out of their asses”–released by the British government frets that robots might someday be smart enough to demand emancipation, raising the prospect that they’ll have to be treated as citizens (and sue if they’re denied that right).<\/p>\n
Should they prove successful, the paper said, “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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The paper goes on to predict that we probably won’t have to worry about that eventuality for at least 20 years. Asimov notwithstanding, I’m thinkin’ it’s going to be quite a lot longer than 20 years. (And call me nutty, but aren’t there more pressing things for the British government to be worrying about? This is like releasing a paper that warns about the repercussions of cockroaches suddenly becoming sentient and demanding the vote. It could<\/I> happen–with Jerry Springer being Exhibit A–but it’s not something that we necessarily need to worry about right now.)<\/p>\n