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A researcher in the Netherlands thinks Massachusetts will be the first state to legalize marriage to a robot, as reported in this MSNBC article. This topic comes on the heels of recent findings that Roomba users have emotional attachment to their vacuums. Don't miss your chance to vote on the topic.

Assuming that robots, that's androids and not vacuums, become so sophisticated in 40 years time that they are recognizably human in both intellect and emotional capacity, I don't see what could be considered so 'icky' about hardware to wetware legal bonding. I think by 2050 not only could robots have something resembling human free will, that brain science will show human free will is a lot less free than we think it is now. The conversion of these two factors might lead to some very interesting debates in the middle of the century.

Notice the researcher is not being as radical as all that. He's not predicting same-tech marriages of robot to robot. Maybe we can expect that for 2101? Or how about the eventual meaninglessness of the concept entirely? Now I'm not arguing that expanding the definition of marriage to the non-human will lead to it's demise, only that profound technological change, such as in the health field, will lead to institutional changes. If humans begin to live happily for 150 to 200 years, or have the ability to live on indefinitely (in the body of a robot?)- would you so easily enter into a vow of unending marriage at age 18? 24? even 35?

Labels: future, philosophy, robots

Benedict Carey has a thought provoking article in last week's NYTimes about a cognitive phenomenon known as "magical thinking" in psychology.

There he notes that while anthropologists have been seeking out remote tribes to study weird rituals and superstitions, really they only have to turn to their neighbors. Especially so in Indianapolis the next week, where fervent fans hope to out-pray their counterparts in Chicago.

This sort of thinking starts early reports Carey, but quickly reality barges in:

Children exhibit a form of magical thinking by about 18 months, when they begin to create imaginary worlds while playing. By age 3, most know the difference between fantasy and reality, though they usually still believe (with adult encouragement) in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. By age 8, and sometimes earlier, they have mostly pruned away these beliefs, and the line between magic and reality is about as clear to them as it is for adults.

Or phrasing it another way, most adults can distinguish between magic and reality about as well as an 8 year old. Cynical much? Well yes, but it helps explain things like witch burnings or local ministers burning 14-year olds D&D books because they believe they know the mind of a jealous white-haired man who lives above the clouds (somewhere I must have missed "do not play with polyhedral dice for they are an abomination" or "suffer not your children to pretend to vanquish the forces of evil for orcs and balrogs are previous unto me.")

Carey reports that some scientist ponder that if superstitious behaviors are products of the brain and they have not been weeded out by evolutionary behavior (for example, say you believed that your god Vulcan demands you should only eat hot coals. This kind of illogical and superstitious behavior would certainly put a damper on carrying on your genetic linage) then maybe it has found a purpose to serve and does some sort of good (for example, chanting a non-sense mantra gives you confidence to ace that interview.)

I wonder though if it is instead more like vestigial organ - lingering far after its usefulness has been surpassed. More of an appendix than a thumb. Like an appendix it is harmless but on occasion can be life threatening, and removing it is far from detrimental.

Yet, Carey points out:

This emerging portrait of magical thinking helps explain why people who fashion themselves skeptics cling to odd rituals that seem to make no sense, and how apparently harmless superstition may become disabling.

So even we skeptics have our appendix. Just another reason to keep the Rationality OS well oiled and running in the background of your hardware at all times even if it is a lot slower to react than your hardwired instincts.

Labels: philosophy, Religion, Science