[BRIEF NOTE] Gay and robot marriage
Mar. 5th, 2009 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldJoe. My. God links to a news report about a North Carolina anti-gay marriage groups deepest fears.
Gibbs' faith in the imminence arrival of artificial intelligences capable of informed consent is misplaced: What about the artificial intelligences already extant? Joe, not unreasonably, wonders about Skynet's reaction to this blatant anti-robot bigotry. Me, I fear Google--upsetting the noosphere at this stage could be catastrophic.
More than 1,000 people, many from Baptist churches across the state, stood on the ice-covered lawn outside the Legislative Building on Tuesday to demand that state legislators give them a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
The rally was a follow-up to a news conference last week during which Republican legislators reintroduced a bill that would allow North Carolina to hold a referendum on defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman. North Carolina law prohibits same-sex marriage, but advocates of the constitutional amendment say they want extra protections should a judge decide the current law is unconstitutional.
Two well-known conservative Christian commentators who spoke at the rally described a breakdown of society should gay couples be allowed to marry -- including a rise in single-parent households and in the number of dependents wanting Social Security and health insurance benefits.
David Gibbs III, a lawyer who in 2005 fought to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo on life support, told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.
"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."
Gibbs' faith in the imminence arrival of artificial intelligences capable of informed consent is misplaced: What about the artificial intelligences already extant? Joe, not unreasonably, wonders about Skynet's reaction to this blatant anti-robot bigotry. Me, I fear Google--upsetting the noosphere at this stage could be catastrophic.
