It seems to me that there is some question of psychology here. Those who enjoy torturing Sims do so, I think, because they know that there is no conscious being who suffers; so it is not real torture, it’s roleplay. Presumably you are not worried about people who enjoy gunning down row upon row of zombies in a shooter. Now, it is permissible to question whether this whatever-it-is that makes people want to play the role of torturers is something we want to keep around in the human psyche; perhaps we’d like to self-edit it out. (Or perhaps not. I have no strong feeling either way.) But the point is that the difficulty doesn’t lie in the roleplay, but in not recognising where roleplay ends and inflicting suffering on a real, conscious being begins. So to answer your question, I would work to explain to people that computer entities will eventually be conscious, and thus deserving of the same treatment we give other humans—yes, even if they look like just lines of code; and explaining the concept of Nonperson Predicates that shows why it’s permissible to torture Sims but not ems. Then, for those few who would still insist on torturing ems, there is either law, or the social mechanisms that currently prevent people from torturing dogs even when it might not be strictly illegal.
It is probably not possible to avoid all em torture, just as we cannot avoid all torture of humans today. But with good education the problem needn’t be worse.
Those who enjoy torturing Sims do so, I think, because they know that there is no conscious being who suffers; so it is not real torture, it’s roleplay.
While this is probably true to a large extent, there are plenty of cases of people abusing weaker beings they fully well know are conscious. Just look at the number of cases of animal abuse, child abuse and spousal violence filed, and remember that for every reported case there are likely several which go unreported. Heck, see almost any of the reports of the conditions in which factory farm animals are commonly kept. See also various reports of prison violence, police / hired guards abusing their authority, common treatments of prisoners of war, et cetera. Don’t forget various cults using emotional or physical violence to maintain obedience among their followers. That’s not even mentioning the various cases that are considered extreme even in Western society, e.g. serial murderers who torture their victims first.
Now take into account that there are probably plenty of people with leanings towards abusive behavior, who nonetheless abstain from it because they’re too afraid of the social consequences. Then think of a scenario where anyone can run ems on their desktop computer and there’s essentially no risk of ever getting caught. Furthermore, the risk of maltreatment grows dramatically if one can think of their victim as non-human and therefore not deserving of moral treatment. If your victim is an em and you’re not, thinking like that isn’t exactly hard.
Ems will make torture cheaper, just as the Internet made pornography cheaper, and so there will probably be more of it, yes. I am trying to suggest that the problem is not overwhelming; that the elasticity at the relevant margin is small, as it were, and can be further lessened by the outreach that we ought to be doing anyway.
It seems to me that there is some question of psychology here. Those who enjoy torturing Sims do so, I think, because they know that there is no conscious being who suffers; so it is not real torture, it’s roleplay. Presumably you are not worried about people who enjoy gunning down row upon row of zombies in a shooter. Now, it is permissible to question whether this whatever-it-is that makes people want to play the role of torturers is something we want to keep around in the human psyche; perhaps we’d like to self-edit it out. (Or perhaps not. I have no strong feeling either way.) But the point is that the difficulty doesn’t lie in the roleplay, but in not recognising where roleplay ends and inflicting suffering on a real, conscious being begins. So to answer your question, I would work to explain to people that computer entities will eventually be conscious, and thus deserving of the same treatment we give other humans—yes, even if they look like just lines of code; and explaining the concept of Nonperson Predicates that shows why it’s permissible to torture Sims but not ems. Then, for those few who would still insist on torturing ems, there is either law, or the social mechanisms that currently prevent people from torturing dogs even when it might not be strictly illegal.
It is probably not possible to avoid all em torture, just as we cannot avoid all torture of humans today. But with good education the problem needn’t be worse.
While this is probably true to a large extent, there are plenty of cases of people abusing weaker beings they fully well know are conscious. Just look at the number of cases of animal abuse, child abuse and spousal violence filed, and remember that for every reported case there are likely several which go unreported. Heck, see almost any of the reports of the conditions in which factory farm animals are commonly kept. See also various reports of prison violence, police / hired guards abusing their authority, common treatments of prisoners of war, et cetera. Don’t forget various cults using emotional or physical violence to maintain obedience among their followers. That’s not even mentioning the various cases that are considered extreme even in Western society, e.g. serial murderers who torture their victims first.
Now take into account that there are probably plenty of people with leanings towards abusive behavior, who nonetheless abstain from it because they’re too afraid of the social consequences. Then think of a scenario where anyone can run ems on their desktop computer and there’s essentially no risk of ever getting caught. Furthermore, the risk of maltreatment grows dramatically if one can think of their victim as non-human and therefore not deserving of moral treatment. If your victim is an em and you’re not, thinking like that isn’t exactly hard.
Ems will make torture cheaper, just as the Internet made pornography cheaper, and so there will probably be more of it, yes. I am trying to suggest that the problem is not overwhelming; that the elasticity at the relevant margin is small, as it were, and can be further lessened by the outreach that we ought to be doing anyway.