Lets face it. There will be Robots in our future but, will humans be able to detect when and if a Robot becomes a sentient being?

Buddhism states that in order to be defined as ^[1]sentient these five things all need to exist.  Aggregates, or skandhas: matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. Is that really possible?

The difficulty researchers have is how to define consciousness. Perhaps robots would  have knowledge of this and choose not to disclose or keep certain traits hidden from humans. From early models, and improvement to knew models digital memory and past issues will be updated so a Robot would have that history as well. At that point it’s quite possible that Robots will start making, building and upgrading on process.

I’m not afraid of that coming storm and neither should you. Nevertheless if we don’t address the possibility of robots becoming sentient, it will be the humans that will suffer the most.

Footnotes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentient_beings_(Buddhism)

Categories: Technology, Thoughts and Ideas