Comment by ctoth
16 hours ago
Do you know what makes someone or something a moral patient?
I sure the hell don't.
I remember reading Heinlein's Jerry Was a Man when I was little though, and it stuck with me.
Who do you want to be from that story?
16 hours ago
Do you know what makes someone or something a moral patient?
I sure the hell don't.
I remember reading Heinlein's Jerry Was a Man when I was little though, and it stuck with me.
Who do you want to be from that story?
Or Bicentennial Man from Asimov.
I know what kind of person I want to be. I also know that these systems we've built today aren't moral patients. If computers are bicycles for the mind, the current crop of "AI" systems are Ripley's Loader exoskeleton for the mind. They're amplifiers, but they amplify us and our intent. In every single case, we humans are the first mover in the causal hierarchy of these systems.
Even in the existential hierarchy of these systems we are the source of agency. So, no, they are not moral patients.
> I also know that these systems we've built today aren't moral patients.
Can you tell me how you know this?
> In every single case, we humans are the first mover in the causal hierarchy of these systems.
So because I have parents I am not a moral patient?
That's causal hierarchy, but not existential hierarchy. Existentially, you will begin to do something by virtue of you existing in of yourself. Therefore, because I assume you are another human being using this site, and humans have consciousness and agency, you are a moral patient.