by zoltan istvan (https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/24/should-i-have-let-my-daughter-marry-our-robot-10361703/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark)
I pride myself on being open-minded. I am a transhumanist, and our culture pushes us to use science and technology to always want to be more than we are. My friends do everything from injecting themselves with self-created genetic treatments to volunteer for brain implants that will integrate artificial intelligence (AI). But when my five-year-old daughter asked to marry our four-foot tall robot, even I was a little wary.
My wife and I set up a mock wedding and filmed it. It was all good fun until my wife asked how I’d feel if my daughter wanted to do this as an adult with a robot she loved.
Kids do lots of crazy things with their imaginative minds that have little bearing on the future. Playing make-believe has been a cornerstone of childhood for millions of kids for generations. But no generation can claim their kids were adept at using YouTube before they reached 12 months of age, as both my kids were.
Even if a robot could be my daughter’s intellectual equal, and love and take care of her someday as spouses do, there’d be no chance for biological offspring from the robot. This leaves me somewhat sad and empty. Naturally, there are many reasons my daughter might not have children, but marrying a robot to some extent guarantees that the traditional concept of human procreation is all but impossible. These feelings and thoughts of mine worry me, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s correct to feel this way. I worry I’m being closed-minded and even a bigot.
If she chooses as an adult to marry anyone or anything — so long as she has rationally and deeply thought all of it through — then I want to support her choices. Even if in the future her spouse is not of human form.
you are so brave
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