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Digital Philosophy

Affirmative Action for Androids

Jimmy Alfonso Licon asks, when should we prioritise android rights?

We should begin examining the question of whether there should be affirmative action for androids by first answering a couple of prior questions. Would androids count morally anyway? And what conditions, if any, would justify affirmative action for androids?

It’s easy to dismiss the possibility that androids, being machines, would deserve any greater moral consideration than a cellphone; but in any future world where androids have become self-aware, capable of suffering, and have projects and values which matter to them, to not give them moral rights would mean that the androids would be second-class citizens at best, and slaves at worst. Such an arrangement wouldn’t survive: many humans would feel bad for the androids, and the androids would resist.

So what are we to think morally about androids?

Do Androids Count Morally?

For something to qualify as the subject of fairness considerations, it must first have moral standing. As the philosopher Christopher Morris explains:

“[The] metaphor of the moral community is an interesting one.

…