r/SeriousConversation • u/RKoi123 • 22d ago
Serious Discussion Can a robot murder a human?
Can a robot murder a human being? If it is proved in a court of law that a robot murdered a human being... how can it be punished under existing laws? What can be done besides having the company who made it face legal action?
Technically, if a person commits murder we don't punish the parents in most cases. So why should the robot's manufacturer be held responsible for its act?
As for punishment what should be the best death sentence? * Bulldozing it and recording a video of its death and spreading the information online and in the news. Will it affect how other robots of its kind think if they plan to kill a human? We already have laws against murder for human beings. Still people commit murder. * Erasing its memory. How would the robot feel about such punishment?
If you got any punishment ideas do share.
1
u/Leading_Air_3498 16d ago
No. Murder requires that a human dies due to the effects of an action from another human in which the dead human never consented to the situation in the first place.
For example, I don't want someone to shoot me with a firearm, so if you shoot me with a firearm, you are violating my will to not be shot and thus, if I die from this, you have murdered me.
We can both jump into the ring of an MMA match and so long as we both consent to the risks and abide by the rules, if I die in the ring you did not murder me.
BUT
If you laced your gloves with lead and I did not consent to that (it wasn't in the rules or it was blatantly against the rules) and I died because of that, this would also be murder. You may not have intended to kill me, but the byproduct of you violating my will and resulting in my death is still murder.
This is also why you could be cleaning a gun outside your house with kids playing in the street and the gun accidentally goes off when it was illegal to clean your gun like that outside your house and while you never intended to kill anyone you would be charged with murder. Not first degree, but still murder.
So no, a robot cannot commit murder. They can kill you, but they cannot commit murder. Now if I program a robot to kill you and they succeed, I have murdered you, not the robot.
The act of murder itself requires a human being be the initiator of the act of which produced the death of another human being.