By now we all know Second Life bots created to artificially boost landowners' traffic stats and aid other anti-social behavior take up tremendous resources and distort legitimate activity metrics. Ciaran Laval of Shiny Life adds a brilliant observation to that: they also seem to violate two out of three of Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics. "There are definitely cases where the actions of bots allow humans to come to harm, land bots who buy at obviously mistaken prices" she notes, which violates Law One ("A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm"), and "if you can't get into your home sim because camping bots have filled the area", that violates Law Two ("A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings"). In both cases, however, Cieran blames the bot creator for the lawbreaking. But then again, that also applies to Asimov's laws. Mr. Laval believes Law Three ("A robot must protect its own existence") doesn't really apply to Second Life bots, but I'm not so sure there. If Resident opposition to bots leads to widespread anti-bot griefing, I suppose bot owners will have to program them with escape and evasion techniques, so they keep performing their tasks. (How would you push traffic bots out of their skybox if they're just able to fly away from you?) Bot image credit: shiny-life.com.
Nyo... Just that Asimovs three laws apply to bots/robots artificial intelligence, not to programs. You could as well say a screwdriver violates the three laws...
Posted by: Yakumo Fujin | Friday, January 16, 2009 at 03:57 PM
Argh, I forgot to put an "with" between "robots" and "artificial intelligence"...
Posted by: Yakumo Fujin | Friday, January 16, 2009 at 03:57 PM
I think you'll find Ciaran is a he, not a she...
Posted by: Alan Cyr | Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Want to see a bot protecting it's own existence? Read Fword Utorid's comments on Prokofy Neva's "Traffic Fraud" PJIRA incident:
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-3631
Posted by: Maggie Darwin | Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 04:11 PM
You appear to be right, Alan-- apologies to MR. Laval, it's fixed.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 07:31 PM
It's ok Hamlet I'm used to it by now, it has happened many times :)
Maggie, Fword is a bot creator, a controversial one as that as I recall, I once went to a meeting where he was proposing an anti land bot, bot. The project didn't ever quite see the light of day.
Posted by: Ciaran Laval | Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 04:25 AM
How's those logins and database failures today?
Second Life is worsening daily under the new leadership. I'm sure they get paid even though their product doesn't work though. So exactly why should they care since there is no financial carrot on a stick incentive to have a solid product? Maybe if the board halted all payroll till Second Life was solid again we might see a sudden surge of concern and elimination without any warning of all accounts that are running bot farms regardless of who they are.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 10:11 AM
This just in:
Bob the Cat on Linden Lab
(An interview with Bob the cat on the recent grid performance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxHquKDRVkA
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 04:14 PM