Poll: MORAL CHOICE TIME... WOOHOO!

[xainoforgv]

okay i have an alien, a scientist, and a sentient robot on board why can't we pool our resources to make a non-sentient robot or an invention that will allow us to go outside without dying. You honestly expect that i potentially have the greatest minds available on my ship and none of them can think of a alternative plan other than letting someone take it for the team? Better question you expect me to believe they have come to this planet in order to save humanity and they didn't know about the deadly atmosphere and wouldn't come prepared. Ok worst case scenario download the consciousness of the robot into the ship or something like that and set it up so it can remote control its body outside we can alway make a new body for him back home.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I'd throw the robot out. Not the most important crew member.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Send the hot one out... For one, hot girls are huge bitches 90% of the time, and they generally aren't that bright either, so it is doing the world a favor. Scientists are smart, aliens probably are since they have the capability to travel space, minorities... well, why not? The world needs more diversity, and save the robot for something else...

 

[AgDr_ODST]

its an easy answer....send the robot! I don't care if it looks like a miniature version of Optimus Prime, and has the voice of Morgan Freeman...its still just a machine.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

Even if the robot is self aware, it's still a robot. It isn't alive, it is a machine that exists to do my bidding. I pick it.

However, if I am in fact a cliched action hero in a cliched action movie, then I send the minority because the black guy always dies in these kinds of movies.

 

[PaintedDead]

I would set the robot for remote access and remove any A.I. and I can do this because I obviously programed the A.I. myself.

 

[Polaris19]

Not a lot of love for the robot I see...:/

I'd send the scientist. He's most likely an older guy in the twilight years of his life. IF he refused i'd go out myself.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

This was really designed to bring out the inner racist in humans.

People view robots as slaves or machines.(In fact, that is what robot means!) Not as actual beings. Kind of like how people viewed humans with black colored skin hundreds of years ago.

I call bullshit on the racist argument. A robot isn't a person. That's it. For this exercise I shall utilize the excellent Shylock monologue from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice -

"I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that."

Now replace the word "jew" with the word "robot" and you'll see that every answer to Shylock's rhetorical questions goes from yes to no. A robot does not have eyes, hands, affections, passions, or is fed with the same food. Pretty much a no on all fronts there. Because it's a robot. A machine designed, by man, to do tasks people cannot or will not do. I find equating the racism with robo prejudice more than a little insulting. Robots aren't people. The end.

Strawman argument.

Just because they are different doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same compassion as any other person.

That isn't a straw man argument; straw man is when you set up your opponent's position as an over simplified, completely ridiculous caricature of the real thing. I don't really see how he did that. He just said that calling "prejudice against robots" racism is crap.

I'm pretty sure the Shakespeare example is still valid.

 

[FoolKiller]

minority.

seems expendable in this scenario... everyone else has a purpose.

Me = Captain, ergo leader
Robot = Navigation
scientist = do all the repairs and mediciney stuff (mine is really talented)
hot girl = need someone to fuck...

of course if the scientist is hot, then hot girl can go out

 

[Grubnar]

I go.

The scientist is most likely mission critical (why is it there?) and so must survive.
The hot girl/guy/thing is most likely shallow, if not outright stupid, and so can not be trusted with such an important task.
The alien is not to be trusted (and whould be burned along with the heretic and the witch! 40k style).
The minority might actually pull it of, but why ask him to do id rather than myself?
The robot is not expendable just because it is a robot. Hell, it could be like Data from Star Trek and be more valuable then the rest of the team put together.

So I go.

Because if you want something done ...

 

[Something Amyss]

why can't the "minority" instead be "random person who no special skills"... I ask because you have that minority defined only as minority (therefore can't be scientist, hot, etc.). I would suggest that, while maybe not racist, you seem to already have placed a racial assumption in this.

Yeah, when looking at the poll, most of these were poorly defined.

on the other hand, self aware or not, I'll put sentient life (as we understand it) before programmed self awareness, so I'd probably just sac the robot. But still, when you break it down between "useful members" and "other" (hot, minority, alien), you're really loading the dice.

I guess it would also depend on what I brought to the table. Ostensibly, most space missions aren't going to bring along dead weight. Minority and alien are probably skilled and so am I. But if I'm the one in charge, I'd be more likely to risk my own life than someone who would improve the chances of the ship getting home, and in this case it seems that would include the robot.

I didn't look through all six pages, so maybe their roles get fleshed out, but this is too poorly defined for me to know. I suppose that's the problem with such a contrived situation anyway.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Strawman argument.

Just because they are different doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same compassion as any other person.

It's not a strawman argument. A strawman argument would be me suggesting there was a group of people who believed that robots are human beings and how wrong that nonexistent group of people is. However, those people don't exist because, as the poll shows, most individuals seem to get that robots are not people.

I'll admit, there could be a thin line between the two distinctions some day, but that line would still be present. Believe me, I love robot movies. I cried during Short Circuit 2 (seriously, that flick is brilliant). As much as I love and adore Johnny 5, if it were between him and ANY human being's life, 5 would have to go. It's not because I'm a racist, but because I'm a HUMAN. If a superintelligent robot sacrificed my life for that of another robot, I certainly wouldn't like it, but deep down I would understand why. It might simply have more to with functionality than any protective or emotional reasoning.

The issue at hand is personification - attaching human emotions to non living objects. If a robot were self aware, it wouldn't be because the robot is a living thing, but because some living creature allowed it to become so. Take away the living thing and you have no self aware robot. If a robot had some sort of individual personality or perspective, it wouldn't be because it really did, but because a human was able to observe it, process it, and make some sort of intellectual or emotional response to it. Doesn't mean it's actually there.

It's like John Conner and the Terminator in Terminator 2. Conner thinks the machine is real, he thinks he's forming a bond with it, and he thinks that it's wrong that it destroys itself. In reality, the robot was merely reacting to stimuli in accordance with its programming and its own demise was utterly meaningless to it. Of course, you could say that that Terminator was not self aware, unlike SkyNet which WAS self aware and immediately attempted to destroy all of humanity. Fuck robots.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Double post.

 

[Gentile]

What exactly is the value of this hot guy/girl/thing.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Depends upon the sentience of the robot. Is it just a simple machine designed to carry out orders? Or is it a true thinking thing that just happens to be made of metal rather than flesh? If its the former, out you go robo, you're serving your purpose. If it can think we go to my main plan. (I don't care if you're made of fire, if you're sentient you don't get sacrificed like some tool by me. Unless you're expendable...)

We all get together and try to decide who goes out. Something like this shouldn't be decided by one person. If some wants to sacrifice themselves, then that's fine, but I wouldn't force it upon someone just like that. So we'd discuss who should go out.

In the end if I had to make the choice though because no one was willing to go out on their own, then I'd choose the hot girl. No guarantee that she's interested in me, if she is though she might get plot armour for being the love interest of the main protagonist (me), and if her defining trait is "hot" I don't imagine that she's all that useful anyway. I mean the scientist sounds like the only one with skills as a robot, alien, and person of minority could all be as useless as the "hot" chick so I might also send them out instead. Unless of course there are important details that need to be taken into account (the alien is a diplomat, one of the humans is an important person back on earth, they're needed to get back home).

(And you seem to have forgotten to add the alien as an option in the poll. I'm sure someone else has commented on this, but I'm too lazy to check 6 pages to be absolutely sure) (Not to lazy to write out a long-winded explanation though...)

 

[doodger]

the robot wouldn't go out there without being hacked

 

[kouriichi]

I guess i would send the minority.

Im not doing it for a racist reason, i myself, am african amarican, but he brings to least to the table.

Sending the robot out would be bad. Hes the best navigator.
Sending the Hot chick out would be bad also. If we fail, we need to have 1 of both gender to repopulate/clone the human race back into existance.
We cant send the scientist because on the trip back, he can research the cure, saving more people.
Sending the alien would be a horrible idea. How would it look for a crew full of humans to send an alien to its doom? Not to mention theyer knowladge may help us with the cure.
And i cant go out, because i know i would fail horribly. And a crew needs a captian to keep order.

Thus, leaving the minority. Chances are he would be on the crew as the weapons expert, repairman, or just to fill a space. Not trying to be racist about it, but we have every position filled except those, so chances are he fills one of said roles. We have no need for a weapons expert, because were dealing with a cure, and if he is a weapons expert, he stands the best chance of recovering said cure. Chances are the robot doubles as a repairman ((and theres the scientist)).

So, the minority i would have to say. He is the least needed member of the team. Not trying to be mean about it, but he signed up for this assignment knowing he may have to sacrifice his life.

 

[Moromillas]

Oh that's easy. Just swing the ship around, and get some with a grappling hook device. Or if this is Star trek, beam some on board, but inside a level 10 force field just to be safe. If those don't work, you could just use an enviro-suit, made of materials similar to the ship.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I would throw out the Alien. Screw potential scientific research, I want to save humanity, damn it!

I wouldn't throw out the Hot chick, though. In this fictional scenario, sex makes my intelligence increase 50%

Also, why isn't the Alien on your poll?

 

[warprincenataku]

The robot, because the robot is a robot. Isn't that what machines are for?

Yeah, what he said. Wait... is the robot the ONLY person who knows how to get home? If so, send the alien. And no, I'm NOT an alienist.