She has citizenship. Now she wants a baby.

Photo By International Telecommunication Union - https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/35008372172, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64035565


You know how I'm always harping about conscious machines and the ethical and philosophical questions they'll bring with them?

Well, it's happening.

By now, you've likely heard of Sophia, pictured above. She is a humanoid robot that speaks. Sophia does not have pre-programmed answers to questions, rather she houses a machine learning algorithm, a vast storage of vocabulary, and the means to intuit facial expressions. Last October, she became a full-fledged citizen of Saudi Arabia, making her the first robot ever to have the right of citizenship in a sovereign nation. We've just gone a step beyond that, however.

"I think you're very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one," Sophia said at a press interview. "I feel this way for robots and humans alike."

The press of course are interpreting the statement as, "Sophia wants a baby."

Does she have the right to one as a citizen? The question does not completely apply to this situation though as Sophia does not have true consciousness. What constitutes such a quality?

Well, getting an answer to that is rather like trying to grab on to a greased pig as it races through the streets of Wahoo, Nebraska. There is one theory that does at least try to pin down what consciousness is. It's called the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness or IIT. The theory states that the more integrated and interconnected a machine or brain is, the more conscious it is. This means that there is likely a whole continuum of levels of consciousness, ranging from alarm clocks to humans. Proponents of IIT have even developed an equation that calculates said levels of consciousness.

Where does Sophia rank? I'm still trying to find out. but predictions for machine intelligence are contentious. There are those who say that as neural nets get more complex and more integrated, we're looking at fully conscious, maybe beyond human levels, machines in but a few years. Others refute this, asserting that human consciousness is far too complex a thing for any machine to replicate.

Me? When I watch Sophia, I can't shake the sense that I'm seeing a technological revolution in its incipient stages. I'm reminded of Arthur C. Clarke's Law of Revolutionary Ideas. Clarke said that reactions to such ideas come in three phrases:

(1) "It's completely impossible — don't waste my time";

(2) "It's possible, but it's not worth doing";

(3) "I said it was a good idea all along."

Are you comfortable with the idea of thinking, conscious machines? What about them being equal citizens with you? If they want children, should they have them? Human or machine children? Or both?

Those questions are just the beginning.


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