So I found the episode of Star Trek that I was talking about in class today! It's called "The Measure of a Man", and it's one of my favorites. Re-watching it I can see a lot of parallels with The Lifecycle of Software Objects; Data wants to resign rather than be dissected, and they have a trial to determine whether or not he's a sentient being with the legal right to make that decision- very interesting. I may actually use this as a paper topic, because I find the idea of AI and determining at what point a creature or an entity deserves rights really fascinating. Any thoughts?
http://ishare.rediff.com/video/entertainment/star-trek-tng-2x09-the-measure-of-a-man/2371845
I like your proposed topic, indeed so much that I was considering doing something very similar. I suppose two people could write papers with similar premises.
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