The inclusion of "futurists" and a sci-fi writer on the committee is a big red flag, anyway. Eh, maybe not. If the rest of the panelists are engineers and cybernetics types, they may not be familiar with the ethics surrounding the question, which is a really tricky one once you get into it. If you can "back up" your consciousness before going on a suicide mission, is it really a suicide mission? What if you can duplicate your consciousness into a company of troops? (Both points avoided in Glasshouse, BTW.) Are self-aware robots going to have the same opinions on the matter? Somebody ought to start thinking about those questions before they come up.
no subject
Eh, maybe not. If the rest of the panelists are engineers and cybernetics types, they may not be familiar with the ethics surrounding the question, which is a really tricky one once you get into it. If you can "back up" your consciousness before going on a suicide mission, is it really a suicide mission? What if you can duplicate your consciousness into a company of troops? (Both points avoided in Glasshouse, BTW.) Are self-aware robots going to have the same opinions on the matter? Somebody ought to start thinking about those questions before they come up.