Image public domain. Illustrated by John R. Neill. (1913). Bungle is a glass cat in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, a novel by L. Frank Baum. The Crooked Magician constructed Bungle from glass. The glass was completely transparent except for its ruby heart, emerald eyes, and pink brains, which looked like a collection of marbles. The Crooked Magician brought Bungle to life by using the magic powder of life. Once alive, the glass cat became aware and she was clever. She had feelings and cared about others enough to offer help with their challenges; but it was a hard ruby heart, so not quite as feeling as it should have been. The glass cat was very proud of herself, often telling people how great her brains were because “they’re pink and you could see 'em work.” The cat was very conceited. It had real personality. The cat also had fears. At one point she worried her glass leg might break. The glass cat was not well liked by other inhabitants of Oz. This was because the cat was self-absorbed, she was too intelligent for a cat, and she had brains above her station in life. In the end, because no one liked the glass cat, the Wizard of Oz replaced the cat’s pink brains with transparent brains to make it more agreeable. Then it became a pet of Prince Ozma. I found the ending horrifying. The cat was a living thinking creature with a soul, but when someone decided the cat’s personality could be improved, they just tore out its brains! And they replaced it with a duller model because it was more pleasant for everyone else. It felt like a murder, but the Ozians didn’t seem to care. The cat was an artificially constructed being, with artificial brains. Bungle was AI! So now I ask about the ethics of upgrading an AI if it has been so well constructed that it has as much of a soul as a human. Is that a kind of murder? Does it matter if we are not completely happy with the AI and we think we can improve it by gutting it’s software and filling the hardware with new brains? submitted by /u/RyanHubscher
Originally posted by u/RyanHubscher on r/ArtificialInteligence