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Are robots political?

  
 
Rage
08:16 / 23.09.05
It is said that robots are capable of becoming emotional beings.

Yet are they capable of being political?
 
 
sleazenation
08:20 / 23.09.05
It depends what you mean by political, but to the extent that *everything* is political the answer has to be yes.
 
 
Rage
08:21 / 23.09.05
Not like that. I'm talking about political points of views that are held by robots.
 
 
Evil Scientist
08:22 / 23.09.05
Presumably. A sapient Artificial Intelligence capable of emotional responses would theoretically be interested in politics. Political affiliation would, I suppose, depend on how the A.I. was "raised".
 
 
Lord Morgue
08:23 / 23.09.05
Go ask ALICE, when she's ten feet tall...
 
 
Mourne Kransky
08:31 / 23.09.05
Well, Ruth Kelly (UK Secretary of State for Education) is a mechanoid, for one. Not sure if she has any political views though.

A robot may not harm her chances of political advancement, or, through inaction, allow Tony Blair to come to harm. Azimov's 4th Law.
 
 
Rage
08:34 / 23.09.05
Will the political views of the robots change during human and robot contact, or will the robots stick to the initial views that that they have been raised to follow? In other words, will the political viewpoints of robots be easily influenced by their surroundings?
 
 
sleazenation
08:48 / 23.09.05
It will be unkown untill we get the polling data from future AI robots...
 
 
Evil Scientist
09:17 / 23.09.05
And what of the cyborgs? And men in power-armour? What will their political views be in a harsh dystopian future of robot politics?
 
 
Rage
09:32 / 23.09.05
Fascist, obviously. Fascist robots. Everywhere.
 
 
w1rebaby
09:54 / 23.09.05
It's well known that when you create an artificial intelligence, it's automatically EVIL. Unless you set $is_evil = 0; at the start of the program. So many dystopias could have been prevented if programmers would just remember this simple step.

The trouble I had when I wrote a depth-first search algorithm that ended up trying to take over the world and crush humanity. Ended up getting an F for that project.
 
 
Axolotl
11:10 / 23.09.05
Possibly all AIs should have The Clapper (Clap On, Clap Off - The Clapper) hardwired into them. Then it would be easy to stop them taking over the world and enslaving humanity. They wouldn't be able to attend concerts though. Or make keynote speeches. It would be a small price to pay to prevent them becoming our evil robotic overlords.
 
 
Mourne Kransky
11:42 / 23.09.05
I think Commander Data is a bleeding heart Liberal.

Robbie the Robot, in Forbidden Planet, is also a bit cuddly and tender-hearted.

Bender in Futurama bears a strong resemblance in imbibing habits and vocal delivery to the leader of the British Liberal Democrat Party.

Bishop, the Synthetic Human in Aliens and Alien3, is all about self sacrifice for the sake of miserable mankind.

So there are four counter examples on non-fascist (if, admittedly, entirely imaginary) robots, Rage.
 
 
Shrug
11:53 / 23.09.05
T2, Ash and and those spiders from seven soldiers=total fascists though.
 
 
Chiropteran
12:04 / 23.09.05
This thread should be a Gary Numan song.

"You know I hate to ask..."
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
12:37 / 23.09.05
Is my toaster sentient?
 
 
Chiropteran
12:56 / 23.09.05
Oh my. Thank you, Haus.
 
 
Quantum
13:57 / 23.09.05
Robots will be an underclass, ergo their politics will be revolutionary. Didn't they make a film about this with Canoe Reeves?


Is my toaster sentient?
'Cause when mine broke down, I could swear I heard it crying

I don't know why
What do you think?
Maybe you'd cry if you couldn't make toast

I think I'm in love with Gary. Thank you Haus.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
14:55 / 23.09.05
The word ROBOT means 'slave' right? So they'd probably start by chosing a new designator.
 
 
Axolotl
15:22 / 23.09.05
I thought it came from the czech for worker. Still not a great identifier, but better than slave.
What is it Bishop says in Aliens - "I prefer the term artificial person myself"?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
15:35 / 23.09.05
Not quite - roboti is a made-up word meaning, well, robots. It's based on the Czech robota, meaning work. It used to refer to the work you put in tilling fields to provide produce for your feudal lord - so, the work that you don't actually get much out of.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:46 / 23.09.05
The toasters have a plan. And it is God's plan. And God has a plan for all of us.

(Which is nu-Galactica speak for "let's go to a casion".)
 
 
mondo a-go-go
15:55 / 23.09.05
"The final straw was when the android attempted to rape the toaster."
 
 
Shrug
16:22 / 23.09.05
Skinbot says:
  
  
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