Geek wet dream

Thank your lucky stars that it is only U.K. taxpayers’ dollars that have been wasted on this British government-commissioned report about giving rights to robots in our lifetimes. I never was much of a sci-fi nut, so I can’t really dig the idea. But Will Smith will love the notions put forward in this Horizon Scan report. An excerpt from the Financial Times of London piece on the report:

“If we make conscious robots they would want to have rights and they probably should. …if ‘correctly managed’, this new world of robots’ rights could lead to increased labour output and greater prosperity. If granted full rights, states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time.”

And it isn’t just our colonial mothers that are behind this, as a Prof. from the recognized Georgia Institute of Technology is also backing the plan.

Goofy. But not as goofy I suppose as giving hakai US$16MM in VC funding to take on Google.

MRM