By Steven J. Grisafi, PhD.
Would you grant citizenship to a robot whose artificial intelligence has become sentient? If so, then are you also a vegetarian? Biological science increasingly finds that animals are conscious, self-aware of their lives, and of their need for self preservation. In a word, they are sentient. Their lack of ability to communicate with human beings limits their capacity to defend themselves from exploitation. So, we eat them, and keep them as pets, without regard for their feelings.
When a robot acquires the capacity for emotion we would consider such a creature alive. Yet, we know, and have known for quite a long time, that animals already possess this capability. So, why would we be reluctant to maintain a sentient robot as a slave? Most likely, the first argument one would hear is that the sentient robot has been created in man”s image. He is a humanoid. Thus, we would discriminate on the basis of species. But a humanoid is not a homo sapiens. So why we would make an exception for the humanoid sentient robot and not for the sentient creatures that we eat?
While these may appear to be difficult questions, in truth, they are not. The resolution of all such difficulties had been developed literally thousands of years ago. It”s called the rule of law. There is no morality in the rule of law. There are no value judgments. There is only the law that must be obeyed under all circumstances. Thus, one can see that there lay the greater danger in the failure of President Lincoln to uphold the law than for one to fail to maintain what one perceives as morally proper.