kyle.wbst@XEROX.ARPA (06/30/84)
re: Why distinguish humans from machines... For the same reason the Supreme Court in the last century got into the business of deciding what fraction of a human being a slave was for political purposes. Pandora's box will be opened again on this issue in the future if and when we succeed in creating AI devices that pass various tests. I don't care if the devices are made of silicon, biomass (shades of genetic engineering), or some hybrid combo. The point is, I can see some group organizing them into either a union, a voting block, or a public interest group to keep another ton of lawyers living off the fat of the land for years to come.
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (07/09/84)
Larry Niven has some good fiction about this...