> On Aug 10, 2004, at 5:30 AM, D. Jay Newman wrote:
> >
> >> my question is if you built such a machine
> >> could you in good conscience turn it off?
> >>
> It doesn't matter so much, since you can back it up to offline storage
> and turn it back on again.  Or duplicated it as much as you want.
> That's a big FEATURE of digital; lossless copy/backup.  (used rather
> effectively in Hogan's "The Two Faces of Tomorrow")

You're making the assumption that the AI is built using solely digital
technology.

Also I think the question is phrased wrong. I would have asked:
  Could you in good concience destroy the machine or turn it off
  perminantly?
--
D. Jay Newman           ! DCX - it takes off and lands base down,
jay@sprucegrove.com     !       as God and Robert Heinlein intended.
http://enerd.ws/robots/ !

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