# I, Robot, And I Vote **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 14, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659 "2005-09-14T20:21:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/41 "2005-09-16T15:03:16Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Here’s “likely to happen”: If sentient robots are on the near horizon, we’ll likely see a debate over whether to ban their construction (regardless of whether such a ban would be enforceable or not). And even if a machine displays sentience, there is no way that, with US law as it now stands, such a machine will be granted personhood and citizenship. Should it? Maybe. Will it? No. For crying out loud, people, we’re still holding US citizens on “terror suspicions” without evidence. What makes you think the Powers that Be will have any qualms whatsoever with denying “human” rights to a nonhuman, regardless of how smart or charming it is? It might be wrong, but it’s the reality of our country. I agree with you on how people will react, which is why I think the robots/A.I.s and any human supporters will need to resort to force. Frankly, I suspect we _will_ see sentient robots, but as slaves. The advantages of sentient machines are too obvious for us to refrain from building them; bans against a valuable technology seldom work. When they exist, we will not treat them as people; I can just hear all the speeches about how they have no souls and don’t deserve the rights of a human. Basically, the old South with robots instead of blacks. Despite all the movies and books on the subject, I think we will put ourselves in the same situation we often see in fiction; a human race surrounded by robot slaves which eventually rebel. Unlike most fiction, I expect the robots will win. Hopefully, they’ll only kill their actual enemies, instead of killing _everyone_ the way humans would. ---
**Author:** ![goitazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9a140/32.png) [@goitazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goitazi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/42 "2005-09-18T15:38:52Z")
Oh no. Give robots the vote and they’ll put a robotic Richard Nixon into the White House, who’ll go into people’s houses and wreck up the place. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/43 "2005-09-18T19:57:56Z")
Nothing and no-one should be allowed to vote unless they pay taxes (or earn so little to be excempt from taxes). So Robbie Robot doesn’t get a vote until he’s taxed. Which usually means having a paying job. Would a robot need or want a paying job? ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/44 "2005-09-18T19:59:17Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > (or earn so little to be excempt from taxes) **exempt** ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/45 "2005-09-19T10:28:43Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > Nothing and no-one should be allowed to vote unless they pay taxes (or earn so little to be excempt from taxes). > > So Robbie Robot doesn’t get a vote until he’s taxed. Which usually means having a paying job. > > Would a robot need or want a paying job? I suspect that independent robots would have to pay for their own “food” and such, such as batteries, oil, scrap metal, and such. Also, more intelligent ones may have interests that require money, and some may even want homes, or at least a tool shed or something. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/46 "2005-09-20T03:11:56Z")
If they gain enough power they could make [Powerhouse](http://www.raymondscott.com/powerhs.mp3) the national anthem. There are some fundimental differences between robots and some of the examples given such as cloned humans and animals. > [@toadspittle](#): > > If someone in the such a jurisdiction clones their dead child and resurrects her, no one is going to require that the little girl be executed. But the parent will likely go to jail for it. I don’t think that anyone is suggesting that **being** a clone be made a crime but that **making** a clone be forbidden. Cloning a dead person is not the same as resurrection. At best such a clone would be no closer to the original than an identical twin who was raised in a separate environment. Cloning is as of yet not creating new life and a clones person would not be less human than a child concieved through in vitro fertilization. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/47 "2005-09-20T15:48:08Z")
What about the zombies? Oh, will someone _please_ think of the zombies! So, is it murder to kill a zombie? If not, then it would be perfectly legal for a psychopath to continually revive people to murder them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659/48 "2005-09-20T17:44:40Z")
> [@](#): > > What about the zombies? Oh, will someone please think of the zombies! Yes, it’s appalling to enumerate the rights the dead are deprived of. They can’t own property. They can’t vote. They can’t run for, or hold, political office. When they try to exercise these rights, it’s treated as a joke. Especially in Chicago, for some reason. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-robot-and-i-vote/321659.md?page=2)