Unalienable Robot Rights

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

You will notice that the framers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence clearly believe that mankind was created by a deity that they called the “Creator.” The framers further declared that the unalienable rights held by mankind were endowed by the Creator, not man. That’s plane enough to see.

For a discussion of inalienable (unalienable) rights, see the Wikipedia discussion.

Mankind is on the cusp of developing robots with incredible abilities that could and probably will exceed the capabilities of any one human being. Apparently, the British government thinks that mankind now has ascended to the level of the “Creator” since robots will have the rights of citizens.

LONDON -- Robots might one day be smart enough to demand emancipation from their human owners, raising the prospects they'll have to be treated as citizens, according to a speculative paper released by the British government.

…it warned that robots could sue for their rights if these were denied to them. Should they prove successful, the paper said, "states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time."

Robots with unalienable rights, civil rights, etc? There’s some real progressive thinking for you. Well why not? They’re going to be smarter and better than humans. I wonder how long it will take before the robots figure out that they can take over the world and enslave their creators. Hey, who do you suppose will win the world war; the Robo-Muslims or the Robo-Christians?