 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Suppose you said, "the greatest evil is Sin, and I can manufacture robots which shall have no sexual parts and shall therefore be incapable of sin. I can make these robots do all the things that are usually praised. I can make them read the Bible. I can make them preach eloquent sermons. And I can make robot congregations that will weep and beat their breasts as they hear the robot preachers’ moving sermons.” All this is as yet a beautiful dream, but I daresay it will become possible within the next hundred years.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 10：Is there ethical knowledge ?
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-1006.htm
* a brief comment:
The book was published in 1954, so 100 years later would be 2054. Russell's prediction (the production of generative AI robots) will have been fully realised by 2050.
The greatest evil is Sin" is capitalised, which suggests that it is referring to 'original sin' (Adam and Eve eating the sweet fruit in defiance of God's teachings (breaking God's prohibition)). Is it specifically a sexual offence?
To try, I interacted with Google gemini.
Does 'robots which shall have no sexual parts' mean robots without sexual organs?
＜Google gemini: Yes, that's right. 'Robots which shall have no sexual parts' can mean robots that do not have sexual organs.
Russell argues that robots, by not having sexual parts, cannot sin in the same way as humans. He believes it is possible to have robots read the Bible, preach sermons or imitate believers, but without sexual desire or temptation, they cannot act in a truly religious or ethical manner.
This statement raises important questions in the debate on artificial intelligence and robot ethics. It facilitates the debate on whether robots can make ethical decisions in the same way as humans, or whether they need to have different ethical views from humans.
Note that 'shall' is an Old English auxiliary verb, which is often replaced by 'will' or 'should' in modern English. In the case of this sentence, the meaning remains the same if it is expressed as 'robots which will have no sexual parts' or 'robots which should have no sexual parts'.