(2018-12-23) Gutting Friends Without Brains

Gary Gutting: Friends Without Brains. Let’s think about a case less dramatic than movie scenarios but much closer to what might actually happen fairly soon. I bring home my new Apple iPal (as the ads said, “Everybody needs a pal!”): a humanoid robot designed to provide companionship to lonely people. (Chatbot)

But after prolonged contact... I find myself thinking that this is someone who does care about me, and about whom I have come to care—not just a pal, but a friend. If we really are friends, how could my friend, even though a machine, not be a person? (Turing Test)

Without subjective experiences my iPal cannot be a person and so cannot be my friend.

What I need, then, is to find out if my iPal is actually aware: whether it has the internal, subjective experiences that go on when we are thinking, perceiving with our five senses, or feeling emotions or pain.

the question is really how I know that anyone besides me has inner experiences

We might think that a decision isn’t needed. Why should it matter whether my iPal has subjective experience?

If iPals can suffer, then we have a whole set of moral obligations that we don’t have if they can’t suffer.