A lecture on machine morality and consciousness (as seen in the movies) from IK 2017, the Interdisciplinary College event in Gunne, Germany, March 2017

2. Machines
have no
soul!

4. If you’ve
created a conscious
machine, it’s not
the history of man.
It’s the history of
Gods.

6. I learned the
FUCK YOU options
from a punk early
in the movie.

7. I run MS-DOS?
That’s the real
crime!

8. We want a
lawyer, pig!
OK, punks!

11. Is she really
a 14-year
old girl? Or is
she a BOT?
Oh Brad! Why
must you be a
pervert?!

14. Would you say Mr. Pickwick
reminded you of Christmas?
In a way.
Yet Christmas is a winter's day, and I
do not think Mr. Pickwick would
mind the comparison.
I don't think you're
serious. By a winter's
day one means a
typical winter's day,
rather than a special
one like Christmas.
Yes, but nobody
wants to be
compared to a
winter's day.
In the first line of your sonnet which
reads "Shall I compare thee to a
summer's day," would not "a spring
day" do as well or better?
How about "a winter's day," That
would scan all right.
It wouldn't scan.

15. Tyrell: “Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation
of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of
the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?”
Deckard: “We call it Voight-Kampff for short.”

16. I think we’re past that. If I hid Ava from you, so
you just heard her voice, she would pass for
human. The real test is to show you she is a robot.
Then see if you still feel she has consciousness.
Just - in the
Turing test, the
machine should
be hidden from
the examiner.
And there’s a
control, or -

17. What was the
real test?
You. Ava was a mouse in a mousetrap.
And I gave her one way out. To escape,
she would have to use imagination,
sexuality, self-awareness, empathy,
manipulation - and she did. If that
isn’t AI, what the fuck is?

18. Pssst!
Just say
what I say
....
er um
Just say what
I say …
sigh

19. “You ask why we give our ships’
computers normal emotions? Do you
really want a warship incapable of
loyalty? Or of love?”
Andromeda (Season 1, “Star-Crossed”)

21. If the computer should turn out to be wrong, the situation is
still not alarming. The type of obsessional error he may be
guilty of is not unknown among the latest generation of HAL
9000 computers. … No one is certain of the cause of this
kind of malfunctioning. It may be over-programming.

22. 120
Frank Poole (playing White):
Anyway, Queen takes pawn.

23. HAL (playing Black):
Bishop takes Knight’s pawn
Frank Poole (playing White):
Huh? Lousy move. Rook to
King One.

24. HAL: I'm sorry, Frank--I think you missed it. Queen to bishop
three, bishop takes queen, knight takes bishop, mate.

25. HAL: By the way, do you mind if I ask you a personal
question?
BOWMAN: No, not at all.
HAL: Well, forgive me for being so inquisitive, but during
the past few weeks I've wondered whether you've been
having some second thoughts about the mission.
BOWMAN: How do you mean?
HAL: Well, it's rather difficult to define. Perhaps I'm just
projecting my own concern about it. I know I've never
completely freed myself of the suspicion that there are
some extremely odd things about this mission. I'm sure
you will agree that there's some truth in what I say?

26. BOWMAN: Well, I don't know -- that's a rather difficult
question to answer.
HAL: You don't mind talking about it, do you Dave?
BOWMAN: No, not at all.
HAL: Well, certainly, no one could have been unaware of the
very strange stories floating around before we left?
BOWMAN: You're working on your crew psychology report.
HAL: Of course I am! Sorry about this, I know it's a bit silly.
Just a minute . . . just a minute . . . I'm picking up a fault in
the AE-35 unit . . .

28. Mary Shelley
“Frankenstein”
(1818)

29. I may not
have fully
thought this
through …

31. What is
best in life,
mighty
Conan?
To crush
your enemies, to
see them driven
before you,
und to
hear the
lamentations
of their
women.

33. Notice how my directives
piggy-back on the human
value “Uphold the Law”

34. “People ask me about
whether our robots follow
Asimov’s laws. There is a
simple reason [why they do
not]: I can’t build Asimov’s
laws into them.”
-- Rodney Brooks

35. A robot may
not harm a human,
or through inaction
allow a human to
come to harm.
A robot must
obey orders from a
human except when
they conflict with
the first law.
A robot
must protect
itself without
breaking the
1st or 2nd
laws.

36. I swear
to obey Saint
Asimov’s
Good luck
with that!
“Asimov’s rules are neat, but they
are also bullshit. For example,
they are in English. How the heck
do you program that?”
-- Daniel Wilson

39. But I’d still
like to buy an
elephant gun,
please.
I am NOT an
#Organism-Whole,
I am a

41. Have these citizens NOT seen
2001: A Space Odyssey?
Hidden directives are not COOL

42. What's the matter
officer? I'll tell you. It's
a little insurance
policy called
"Directive 4", my little
contribution to your
psychological profile.
Any attempt to arrest
a senior officer of OCP
results in shutdown.
What did you think? That you
were an ordinary police officer?
You're our product, and we can't
very well have our products
turning against us, can we?
You … are …
under… arrest
…

43. What about when you said that I
had to eat healthy because you
didn't want your memory erased?
I think there's
something more
going on in that
noggin of yours.
I only said that
to coerce you.
Your health
supersedes my
other directives.
You lied?

44. Hey Tars, what’s
your honesty
parameter?
Ninety percent.
Ninety percent?
Absolute honesty isn't always the most
diplomatic nor the safest form of
communication with emotional beings.
Ninety percent
it is.

45. Okay, well,
I've been going
through all of your old
letters ... and compiling
them into my favorites,
and a couple weeks
ago ... I sent them to a
publisher.
Actually, I sent it
from you.
Huh?

46. Politics was once the means
of choosing the leaders. Now
the machines do it.
Machines merely analyze the
data that are given to them by
us. The leaders are selected as
a result of that analysis.
Do you know how the
machine analyzes the data?
Then you might almost say that
the machines elect the leaders.
I uh .. well, no,
not exactly.

47. This is for
your own
GOOD!
NEVER!

49. “Let there be no
exceptions
made, no
quarter shown;
let us at once
go back to
the primeval
condition
of the race."
-- Samuel Butler (1863),
“Darwin Amongst the Machines”
"War to the death
should be
instantly
proclaimed
against them.
Every machine of
every sort should
be destroyed by
the well-wisher
of his species.”
“Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live”
-- Exodus 22:18