Repeat the robots question, except ask the question about video game characters instead. Now, there are some game characters that have very simple patterns of behavior, but there are some that are a lot more complex, even if still describable by a set of algorithms. I’m sure there are characters that can and will beg you not to kill them. Is it wrong to play the video game and sacrifice the video game characters?
I’d reject the analogy between Vulcans and video game players.
Vulcans can freely interact with their environments and have goals/desires which can be promoted/thwarted. It’s not clear that any of these hold for video game characters.
If you made the character sophisticated enough that the algorithm in the game realised a conscious mind capable of interacting with the environment and having goals then I think I’d bite the bullet and say it’s wrong to kill the character gratuitously.
You’re thinking of a p-Vulcan as a slight variation on a human. But the context includes:
Remember, it’s highly likely that shrimps have some form of phenomenal consciousness and experience some form of suffering. Shrimp suffering is bad. Even though we lack the capability to accurately predict its intensity, the shrimp certainly suffers more than the Vulcan would. Vulcans totally lack the capacity to suffer.
A p-Vulcan doesn’t have to be very humanlike. It only needs to be shrimplike, but without the ability to suffer. I do think that many existing video game characters would qualify, by that standard, as similar to a p-Vulcan. Is it wrong to kill those video game characters?
Repeat the robots question, except ask the question about video game characters instead. Now, there are some game characters that have very simple patterns of behavior, but there are some that are a lot more complex, even if still describable by a set of algorithms. I’m sure there are characters that can and will beg you not to kill them. Is it wrong to play the video game and sacrifice the video game characters?
I’d reject the analogy between Vulcans and video game players.
Vulcans can freely interact with their environments and have goals/desires which can be promoted/thwarted. It’s not clear that any of these hold for video game characters.
If you made the character sophisticated enough that the algorithm in the game realised a conscious mind capable of interacting with the environment and having goals then I think I’d bite the bullet and say it’s wrong to kill the character gratuitously.
You’re thinking of a p-Vulcan as a slight variation on a human. But the context includes:
A p-Vulcan doesn’t have to be very humanlike. It only needs to be shrimplike, but without the ability to suffer. I do think that many existing video game characters would qualify, by that standard, as similar to a p-Vulcan. Is it wrong to kill those video game characters?