I read about something like this in an article a while ago, and I thought that it was an interesting question that could stimulate some discussion. Humanoid robots (and robots in general) are slowly becoming more advanced, which makes it more difficult to look at them as mere machines, especially if they're designed to resemble humans.

From BBC article:

"There needs to be a way to break the illusion of emotion and intent, and see a robot for what it is: wires, actuators and software." What do you think about that statement? Should robots be designed so that we won't be fooled by their appearance and behavior, or is it okay to create robots that resemble something intelligent and... living?

Let's pretend that there exists a humanoid robot that is so sophisticated and realistic in its appearance and behavior that it would be near indistinguishable from actual humans. If you were asked to do terrible things/torture it, would you feel comfortable doing so? Why, or why not? Is it alright to torture it?

Discuss. I suppose this topic could be about humanoid robots and your thoughts about them in general too. As for me, I'd probably feel uncomfortable hurting something that seemingly possesses emotions, judgment and intelligence. I think it's natural to feel deceived by something that tries to imitate living creatures. I even feel bad about killing NPCs in video games, haha. I don't think it's possible to torture or murder something that isn't real to begin with either, and I think that those who find enjoyment in torturing life-like things may have some issues on their own.

Depends which Cylon model it is...

I'd rip them apart to answer the question "Do androids dream of electric sheep?"

It is still a robot and has no soul. I could care less if I had to kill, because its no a person.

But should it be tortured for no reason? No, that is just some sort of sickness.

Would I feel comfortable doing it? No, but I wouldn't regret it or hesitate to do it. If I enjoy torturing something that looks and acts like a person, that is a sickness and just saying "its a robot" doesn't make it okay.

Is it alright to torture it? Yes and no. If I'm torturing it just to get my rocks off, then there is something wrong. If I torturing it for some valid reason, its legitimate.

No, they don't.

One nanobyte, Two nanobyte......three....nano.....byte.....

Why not? They don't feel pain, physical or mental. You can't hurt them, only break them. Robots are nowhere near the point where they should have "robot rights"

Regardless, i don't approve of pointless violence against living nor lifeless things.

Oh God. I had to study Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep this last semester at uni. Required me to run a 2 hour seminar on this sort of "robot ethics". Many shots were fired, many butts were hurt in ridiculous arguments.

Short answer, robots arn't alive, so you can't 'torture' or 'murder' them. They are machines, they are designed to be turned off and on. They dont feel pain, they dont have sentience and they arn't alive. Until our technology reaches the point of developing true artificial intelligences this isnt even an issue, and even then we'd have to consider whether such an AI is truly 'sentient' or 'independent'.

I'd have no trouble murdering a robot or beating them to robot-death with my combat boots.

Simple, they can be resurrected, their parts/organs can be made again and again. And their personality/decision making capacity is made by humans and can be duplicated.

The only bad thing about doing it is the economical loss.

It would be more complicated to do if the robot screamed like a human being and it's screams were so expressive that you could feel them running through your body, just like when you murder a human being or an animal. That's more about people's perception of the act.

If the robot has been programmed to do harm and whoever makes 'em is asking me to do such thing for an experiment, I'd enjoy doing it. After all, it's a programmed machine.

Aren't all living things kind of like machines from the right perspective? I usually think that in these cases, if it wants self-preservation and doesn't want to die, then live and let live--even if it's only programmed that way.

So robots are people too.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPCw09-DNFg

The difference between murdering NPCs in a videogame is that they're just codes in the game's disk. An actual robot that is physically in the same room as I, and seemingly possesses the same emotions, judgement, and intelligence as I? I would feel uncomfortable hurting it, too. It may not have organic flesh and blood, but what would that make us humans look to think that because something doesn't look like us, it's OK for us to torture or kill this creation?

I think there are plenty of sci-fi novels out there that explore this very question.

Though, on the flip-side, this question should be asked: what robot are you talking about. Is it a robot that looks exactly like you and me, with synthetic skin, hair, blood, etc, and this robot just wants to live? Or is it a robot exactly like the above description, but bent on mayhem? Or is it a robot like C-3PO?

I don't think I'd be able to do it. I have a terrible habit of anthropomorphising things anyway, which might be the reason, or perhaps a more profound feeling that it's just wrong. Either way, at best it'd make me feel pretty uncomfortable.

I would argue there are a lot of humans that have no soul either, but we allow them to keep on living with laws to protect them from me bashing their had in with a baseball bat.

Well sure it's okay to abuse robots, what's the worse that can happen?

http://youtu.be/uhIpXPvq_n4

Oh......that's probably not a good idea.

It all depends on whether the robot is sophisticated enough to be sentient, feel pain etc. In that case I'd consider anyone willing to torture and murder it to be a bit of a psycho, frankly. Exactly the same as with doing it to animals or humans. Since current robots can't feel pain they can't be tortured and damaging them gratuitously would be just mindless violence. Humans tend to be pretty good at that.

What's really mind boggling is trying to conceive what robot sentience really is. Let's say we've created an android that's an almost flawless imitation of a human. Naturally we'd assume that it's just a computer running a program, but what if it starts talking about uneasy things like bringing up existential questions? Do we just pat ourselves on the shoulders for creating an intelligent AI, or do we ask ourselves if the thing actually has developed some form of consciousness on its own?

I like to think that way too. Robots are just wires, actuators and software, but then again we're just blood, flesh, guts, organs and bones too. Does what we're made of at some point become irrelevant? I think so.

I feel bad for throwing for out food. It looks so sad and just wants to be eaten... Poor food.

Not joking.

Especially if it's meat. I mean, an animal died (and probably lived in cramped, [censored] conditions and pumped full of antibiotics all it's life) just so we could eat and then we just throw it away.

It's a very good point. For us sentience is completely bound up with feelings and emotions, conscious and unconscious. This obviously depends on a lot of complicated biology and a vast array of hormones etc. We're also completely driven by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. A robot AI will have none of that so its experience and motivations in life are going to be incomprehensibly different to ours.

Yeah, I do that, and not just for the reasons Shoestring mentioned. I even felt sorry for a tissue the other day: it had some nice balm on it and wanted to be used to wipe my nose, not mop up some random spillage. Sigh...

If it's a hot Cylon Chick then no. It's not OK to hurt them. But if it's the original Centurion and new Centurion then yes, hurt them all you like.