Sobots

[jackofallgeeks]

The idea of Sobots excites and frightens me at the same time, for the same reasons.

This seems like some pseudo-scientific summoning ritual; I like that:

In reality, Rity can't do much yet. On this day the scientists have a hard time just getting him to appear. They're gathered around a big-screen TV that sits like a living room centerpiece along one wall of the lab. A grad student is mugging for a mounted camera, which is supposed to recognize his face and summon his Rity. But nothing is happening.

Comments

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

"Everything is a double-edged sword," says Kuppuswamy, shrugging. "I don't think about it."

That bugs me. Deliberately ignoring the ethical implications of one's own work is gross irresponsibility. Science without a conscience is mad science, even if it's in the real world.

That said, this is both excitingly cool and quite disturbing.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I thought when I read it. Especially considering that these Ritys are meant to be able to travel through actual- and virtual-bodies throughout the home and office, the potential for malicious activity is frightening. Even if you're just talking about a rogue Rity body-hopping and causing mischief...

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Irresponsibility of that sort is utterly immoral... it pisses me off. Then people try to whitewash it with the idea that there is some sort of virtue in soulless research.

Now, I firmly believe in scientific endeavor, research and technological development... but ethical considerations are frankly far more important than knowledge for its own sake. Everything must be justified by virtue, save virtue itself.