[MichaelGG]

I built my children out of whatever my wife was eating + a bit of material on my part.

How something came into existence shouldn't determine if its intelligence deserves protecting. Creating intelligent machines and torturing them, for instance, should definitely be a criminal act.

And if brain scanning/emulation catches up enough, then what? It's OK to torture a non-human intelligence if the source wasn't a brain scan? What if we start building our own out of composites or scratch?

Intelligence/capacity for suffering should be the deciding factor here. (And hopefully they'll breed more stupid animals for meat, until it's feasible to grow meat directly.)

[cubancigar11]

And now you will die and your children will have the full authority to give birth to something new and different.

And that is the whole debate here. Are we willing to let humanity end so AI can give birth to a better AI? I think not.

[lotsofmangos]

Humanity ends every new generation. Your kids are human+n.

[cubancigar11]

Unless you think a sentient AI will be created by having sex, that statement is meaningless for this discussion.

[cubancigar11]

Modders need to be more careful in modding. The difference between AI/robot and humanity is indeed a biological one. I know that giving important to sex is something geek culture frowns upon, but when we are talking about 'creating' a different organism, I don't see why pointing out the blatant difference is such a problem.

[lotsofmangos]

Sex is not necessary for life and evolution and has only existed in the last third of the fossil record.