We All Want Slaves

The concept of slavery has existed throughout history.  Possibly, it has always existed.  Different societies have used different forms of slavery, from servants opting for voluntary service for their own purposes, to indentured servitude, to outright iron-fisted slavery.  In different forms this arrangement has always been with us, but in all forms, it's always been a master/slave relationship. 

Even in family units, a form of slavery exists.  In traditional societies, as soon as children can walk, they are taught help with household duties.  This not only prepares the child for adulthood later, it also distributes the workload of the parents, so that they do not have to acquire food and resources alone.  This is a form of voluntary slavery, agreed upon by all for the good of all, done in love (ideally).  Things are obviously changing from that age-old type of society, to the one we are in now, inundated with ever-increasing technologies. 

That brings me to our modern time, regarding slavery.  The concept of human slavery, in any form, is totally repugnant to any civilized person in the Western world.  There are some that seek to cling to old ways of thinking about human slavery, but they are increasingly an aberration.

We still have slaves, however.  They have not gone away.

In another blog, hopefully soon, I will talk about the concept of wage slaves.  For today, though, I'm talking about the secret, hidden slaves that we all have and don't know it.  Every day, every one of us employs the use of dozens of slaves.  We order them without mercy.  We abuse them and even destroy them without a thought.  We buy them and sell them endlessly.  And when we're done with them we throw them into a pit and leave them to expire.

The slaves are our machines.

This is not necessarily a new topic.  What makes it new, though, is that we are on the verge of having complex, sophisticated machines coupled to rapidly-evolving artificial intelligence.  In other words, we just might possibly make machines that look almost human, and act almost human.  Why would we do this?  Because our body is the ultimate interface with our technology.  You could design a robot to swing a hammer, but a humanoid robot could automatically do that, and drive a car, and plant a tree, and infinitely more.

Let me back up for a moment.  In case you don't think of our machines as being slaves, allow me to have some fun with you.  Imagine it's twenty degrees below zero, and you go to start your car.  The car says to you, uh-uh, I ain't startin', it's frickin' twenty below out here, and how about a garage for Chrysler's sake.  We don't experience that, do we?  We demand that the car start under ALL conditions, not just the conditions that are good for the car.  We force the car to serve our needs, or else we get rid of it and buy a car that will.  The car is completely and entirely our slave.  A car, at least at this time, does not possess an intelligence.

What we desire is a machine that is smart enough to understand us and obey us, but not smart enough to refuse an order, or rebel.  In other words, we want our machines to be enslaved to us.

Re-read that last paragraph, now thinking of human slavery.  Why is this important?  Because soon we will be faced with the ultimate in slavery, intelligent machines.  This will also bring us to the question of what constitutes human, and what is a slave.  Most importantly, this issue will force us to think about our own attitude toward slavery.  If I offered you a person in chains, you would refuse, I would hope.  But if I offered you a sleek Japanese robot that could do all your household chores and have sex with you, would you accept it?  Both are slaves.  Both are intelligent humanoids.  Which is the slave?

I really think we need to consider this now.  It won't be long until this issue is right in front of us.  There is another point to remember in this discussion.  It may happen by accident or by design that our intelligent machines become more intelligent than us.  If they have knowledge and abilities that we can't compete with, they will effectively control us.  Then, we become the slaves.

In which case, our own laws may be applied to us.  So legislate carefully.  Would you want a member of your family to be treated the same way you treat a car?  Or a toaster?