If you upload a raven (or some other corvid with problem-solving ability) and use copies of the resulting postcorvid entity to pilot, eg, trash cleanup drones, what moral responsibility do you have to them?
Uploads count Obviously the same as biologicals (or more if they’re uplifted in the process) so I’d argue that such postcorvids need to be treated pretty well. Piloting the drones should be sufficiently stimulating that they aren’t getting bored, they shouldn’t feel pain except where reasonably justified as a self-protective measure against damage (and if the drone is rendered inoperable the upload process should be frozen immediately), they shouldn’t be having urges they are unable to satisfy, etc.; basically treat the mechbirds the same you’d treat biobirds with equivalent minds.
And fully uplifted neo-avians should get the same rights as humans. No questions about it.
Wellll… I mean, the ability to do things like pause and copy should change some of the treatment-for example, if I procrastinate on letting the uploaded bird go fly a drone and it just stays on the hard drive a bit longer that is rather different from leaving a biobird in a cage. The mechbird won’t notice. The biobird will get bored. Uploads generally require less things. This is one of the advantages of uploading.
Still, this is all implementation details: Mechbirds and biobirds are both ethically equivalent, even if the details of ‘how do you fulfill the needs of this creature’ varies.
Yes, obviously. That’s why you always suspend the mechbird except when its garbage collector needs to run.
…I’m not idly curious-what sort of psychological downtime do ravens need? Because only ever existing when you have a job to do also sounds questionable.
Of course, we can just go with the simplest example: For exactly one of (bioraven/mechraven) is it ethical to plug it into a power grid. In fact, ethically required. For the other one it is unethical.
Ideally the downtime would be built in to the “job” itself so that it doesn’t feel like “work”, but instead like “life”.
I’ll just quote this anti-work anarchism AMA I randomly found because it has a relevant TL;DR on what it’s about and someone asked about leftist work-abolitionist perspectives a few months ago or something like that and if that person sees this one it could be relevant:
The anti-work anarchist solution is to abolish work either through productive play or automation. Productive play is the process of turning certain tasks into play. Abolishing work does not mean doing nothing. It means creating a new way of life, a ludic existence. Automation could also play a role and work could be abolished through the automation of all dirty, dull and dangerous tasks. I personally think automation is extremely important for abolishing work. Everything mundane, from cleaning toilets to mining should be automated. This would finally free us from toil and allow us to truly live spontaneously.
So basically the mechraven would feel like it’s living to the fullest, while picking up trash as a side effect.
1 month ago · 26 notes · source: voidfraction · .permalink
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collapsedsquid reblogged this from socialjusticemunchkin and added:That’s always something I’ve wondered about, making organism-like robots for which “working” is basically what they want...
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woodswordsquire reblogged this from socialjusticemunchkin and added:#birdsrightsactivist Excuse u. Mechbird union demands Sundays off and 3 weeks vacation, NOT be shut off at humans whims....
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socialjusticemunchkin reblogged this from soundlogic2236 and added:So basically the mechraven would feel like it’s living to the fullest, while picking up trash as a side effect.
slartibartfastibast reblogged this from voidfraction and added:All of these moral systems depend on the conscious state of the bird being arbitrarily duplicable. That looks about as...
soundlogic2236 reblogged this from voidfraction and added:Oh! I know about that (CUTE VIDEO THOUGH), I was thinking more in terms of do they need calm quiet times, not just play....
voidfraction reblogged this from soundlogic2236 and added:I’m not sure what happens to ravens if they’re deprived of opportunities to play, but they definitely play in nature....
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