[Recording Start]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, go ahead.
Rick Rosner: Alright, related to our earlier topic, and I think we brought this up years ago, is that AI, along with other high-powered technologies, is on the brink of leading to replicable brains. Within the next 20 to 30 years, we’ll see the emergence of sentient beings that are semi-manufactured. We’re about to delve into all sorts of hocus-pocus with consciousness, which really is the crown jewel of what sets humans apart. We’re going to start messing with it in the coming decades, and this will inevitably lead to a host of ethical questions. For example, people might go to court to claim that, even when most of their brain has been replaced with bio-circuitry, they still have the legal right to be considered themselves. Or when 90% of their brain’s neurons have been replaced with artificial ones, they have the right to marry their robot girlfriend, and all sorts of other ethical dilemmas.
Then there’s the issue of sentient entities, manufactured beings, and their right not to be treated like trash and tossed into landfills. We can expect governments, especially in America, to do a really shitty job at resolving these issues. Take the abortion debate, for instance. We’re about to take a step back in time with Trump appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, who mostly lied to the Senate about overturning Roe vs. Wade. This 50-year-old ruling granted women the right to abortion under reasonable circumstances, usually within the first trimester and often through the second trimester until fetal viability.
Rosner: Now, with six conservative justices, we’ve just heard a case from Mississippi to limit abortion after 15 weeks, well before viability. They will probably tear down a big chunk of Roe vs. Wade when the ruling comes through, probably by June. They heard the case now, in November or December, but it’ll take them months to roll it out. When it comes to consciousness, the abortion issue is relatively clear. The consciousness of a 15, 18, or 20-week fetus, if you think about it, is not overly problematic. There’s not much of a consciousness there. If you’re okay with snuffing out the consciousness of a chicken to eat chicken, then the consciousness of a 20-week-old fetus is much less than that of a chicken, pig, or cow. Consciousness should be one of the tent poles in considering whether abortion is acceptable. Yet, it’s barely taken into account by many people who argue against abortion, focusing instead on the fetus’s ability to feel pain, which, even if present, is minimal compared to the sophistication of consciousness being snuffed out.
[Recording End]
Authors
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Founder, In-Sight Publishing
In-Sight Publishing
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Rick Rosner 