(As an aside, if you haven’t watched Silent Running, you should – it’s… haunting and incredibly sad. It stays with you. Srsly.)

I’m not one who likes writing hard sci-fi. I tend to stick to dystopia. This doesn’t stop me reading hard sci-fi though, and empathising with these AI computers. And it’s this ability to empathise with these AI computers that got me wondering what sort of ethics humans will need to adhere to if/when we get to a point in the future where AI computers are widespread.

Why do I say that we’ll need ethics? They’re just machines, right?

Well, I don’t see it that way. Humans have a bad tendency to personify. It already happens with current technology. People give their gadgets and computers names, and talk about them as if they had distinct personalities. How attached do you think we’ll get when computers not only have names, but can talk and interact with us as if they were alive?

Would we consider them alive? What if they can create, independent of human intervention, like Edgar did? Would we respect their claims for ownership of their creations? Or will we claim they are our creations because they’re just machines and can’t create?

I wonder if we even have a right to give machines human-like intelligence and them claim total control over them, that we have some sort of right to decide if they live or die, insomuch as computers can live or die. If they are similar to sentient beings, if we kill them, does it become murder? Or would we end up justifying it the way we justify euthanasing animals? Could you argue those computers would have a ‘right to life’?

This is where my own opinions about this get muddled. I honestly can’t find a position because I can see all the alternatives and options and ideas and none stand out as being ‘the right choice’.

This is especially true for me with the issue of euthanasia. On the one hand, I can sympathise with wanting to end the misery for someone with a terminal illness who wishes to die. However, I can also see it as murder. I also can’t see why we can justify euthanasing animals as being ‘humane’ and ‘putting them out of their misery’, and yet applying the same thing to humans is somehow wrong. It’s not like the animals can consent to being euthanised. Indeed, there would be some terminal patients who might not be able to consent. There are also patients who do consent and wish to die, and somehow we think we know better than they do in allowing them to live and drawing out their suffering because ending their life is seen as wrong.

I know there’s a counter argument that, well, animals and people are different, but are they really? Animals feel pain. They get sick. They love us. We look after them. They might not have the same intellectual capabilities or ’sentience’ as we do, but I doubt that means they are mindless robots. There are different forms of intelligence and ways to communicate.

Still, we feel we have guardianship over our pets and animals because we feel they can’t make decisions for themselves. We have power of attorney for people who can’t make decisions for themselves. There are people who have ‘do not resuscitate’ things. And yet…

I don’t know. I’m feeling a little morbid today. I might go get some coffee once this is done and do some assignments instead of procrastinating further. I doubt I’ve solved anything in this entry, apart from articulate some thoughts on similar yet different issues. I think I had more to say, but the words aren’t there anymore, so I’ll save them for later when I can think of more to say.

I hate most Chaser fangirls on principle, I hate them on sight if they use even the smallest amounts of netspeak, but the ones on Bebo take the cake for being the worst kinds of Chaser fangirls in existence.

Heh, and you thought myspace was bad? You haven’t descended into the pit of Hell that is Bebo.com. *shudders*

There is netspeak so prolific and so incoherent, it may as well have been written by monkeys bashing at typewriters. Hell, even Yoda is more coherent than these morons.Here’s a wonderful gem from one of the Chaser stalkerfanpages:
find out which chaser you are!
http://www.quizilla.com/users/limean…
Me sarah got craig reucassel! yay his sexy!
tell us who u got!!

Well, you’re clearly not brain dead, since you know your name is Sarah. Yay his sexy what? His sexy hair? His sexy chest? WTF are you on about?

You can spell almost every word correctly and out in full but need to abbreviate one you to ‘u’? And your grammar’s shit.

Although you get one point for managing to not fuck up the spelling of Craig’s name.

And this charming little thing:
i lovE thE chasErs war on EvErythig
OX.
brookE.

Hooray for random capital E’s? o.O

Is that an indication of her drug of choice there, hmm?

And this poor little thing is so distressed:
the chasers arent cumin back til the middle of next year *cries* NOO

So they won’t be cumin until June? Right. How does one go about becoming cumin in the first place? They clearly didn’t like it as they clearly aren’t cumin right now. And why would you want to even turn yourself into some spice anyway? Clearly all that means is you’re going to be eaten in some sort of hot meal.

I don’t know if this girl is serious or taking the piss:
andrew hansun
omg i luvvvv andrew!!! hes like, da hotust thing evaaarrrr
omg
i hope wen i c him this year @ da stage sho he propozes 2 me lol
omg that wud b so cool lol

-ALLiE

…I’m terribly afraid she’s serious. Her page is full of rainbows and stupid netspeak, just like that. I think she mentions how much she loves Andrew in almost every sentence.

*reads it again*

I’m not even sure she’s even writing in English. *blinks*

But that’s enough of me solely bashing them for their netspeak, typos and bad grammar. I could do that for hours, but it would just make my brain hurt, so enough of that for now. Moving onto other things.

The sheer stupidity on that place is appalling. Typical teenagers thinking they know everything and can rape and pillage the internet and take whatever they want without consequences. I shudder to think how many will turn up at the stage shows and drive me crazy.

They have no concept of what:
a) copyright means
What first drew me to hate them was that they’d stolen and posted some icons and banners void_stuff, who’s a friend of mine, made. They’d also stolen one of my banners, though they clearly have no idea what slash is, or if they do know, they don’t find it offensive, because they didn’t bother using that against me as I argued with them.

You can’t just go taking any image you find online and claim it as your own. The internet does not exist purely so you can rape and pillage anything and everything you want.

It. Is. Stealing.

Copyright needs to be respected, or people will come bashing down your door, getting you in trouble. Of that I was not bluffing about when I was arguing with them.

b) that copyright law exists online
By posting pictures you don’t own the copyright for, you’re actually breaking the Bebo Terms of Service. Though if that was enforced, the whole site would be shut down, I fear.

Call me a hypocrite, but I was never actually going to claim copyright on that banner. I know I stole the photo from The Australian magazine as I scanned it in. But it scared them enough when I threatened to bring The Australian into things, as they had a similar image uploaded, though not the one I scanned.

I’ve slapped Creative Commons licences on my graphics now, just need to get around to fixing it to the graphics I can rightfully copyright, like my fanart. They’re binding in Australia now, which is nice to know.

That they’re so naïve to be so unaware that copyright law exists online really quite disturbs me, though it’s a myth that a lot of people believe.

c) that you can’t just go posting photos of Craig and his family without permission because it’s an invasion of privacy and makes you look really quite stalkery and creepily obsessive.
But seriously, the main issue I have with the Bebo girls is that three days ago, one darling little braindead rat posted a photo to her Chaser groups photo albums that had Craig and his wife and their three children (which were all named). It was clearly something personal and private and not meant for stupid fanbrats like her to steal and slut around without thought to what they’re doing.

One of the first rules of fandoms involving real people is leave their families the fuck out of it. It’s an invisible line that you DO NOT cross under any circumstances. It’s just out of respect, you know? Their families aren’t in the spotlight, so give them their privacy. You don’t go showing and naming their children either. I know Ollie’s been in The War, but he’s Craig’s kid, not a member of The Chaser, so don’t try and justify it to me like that. It’s bullshit.

I spent three hours yesterday arguing with her friend in a bid to convince her that posting it was wrong and that she should have it taken down. There were emails fired off to Bebo and to ABC Legal about the photo as well, because we felt it shouldn’t have ever been posted.

Only two thirds of the conversation remains as the photo of Craig’s family was indeed deleted this morning, which meant our comment war went with it, but I do have the other two threads. I’m The Vanguard, Sarah Sarahson is the stupid fanbrat, Tegan C and Desiredeffect are on my side, and Underrated is another of the Bebo girls.

The argument began here, which is the banner they stole from me. Like it isn’t obvious where they nicked it from.

It then moved to the photo of Craig’s family, which is now deleted, but there was some stupid arguments there put forth by the girl I was arguing with as to why posting that photo was perfectly fine.

It finally made its way here, which is an icon my friend made.

I’m amused at how she kept bleating to me about “it’s just a picture there are more important things in life LIKE WORLD HUNGER.”

Bleating that 80 times a minute does not make you a) correct, b) more right, or c) more mature. It makes you look like a brain dead sheeple.

I won’t post the entire threads for you as this is long enough already, but I finally beat her into submission and got this as a concession of defeat:
den y did u say all dis shit? u should of just left it im tryin 2 but u guys just keepin rite back wit sayin i did this n that n im breakin da law lik serouisly ill talk 2 my friend n we’ll decide which piks will go n she’ll probaly get rid of the craig pik 4 ur sake ok?

Ugh. Talk about illegible. She’s basically saying I scared her shitless but I’ve made such a bother about it that she’ll talk to her friend and try and get the photo taken down, just as long as I leave her alone.

Is it just me, or does Sarah look like she’s stolen Corey Delaney’s famous glasses? XD

Following back to the profiles of two of the members of that group gave me some more lulz, but I won’t bother taking up any more time bitching about them, although the comments on both their pages make for amusing reading, and their conversations are mostly coherent English for a change.

Underrated and Chaser Fan.

Although I would like to give them the Trophy For Stating The Obvious:
anyway, in cnnn everyone looks younger yah random

No, really, they looked younger than they do now in a show they made 5 years ago? The mind boggles. >.< Garbage Man there, which is awesome. I was so annoyed when it disappeared off youtube.

And there endeth my rant about Bebo. I’ll be keeping an eye on them in case they cross that line again, and if they do, I’ll hound them again, just like I did this time. If I keep at it long enough, I might get them to take down mine and void_stuff’s graphics.

The Vanguard is watching and ready to attack.