I watch far too much children's TV nowadays. This is a side effect of having children, I guess. There is a programme called 'Get Squiggling!', feature the character Squiglet, who can draw things and bring them to life, and have adventures with them. This includes drawing people, bringing them to life, and creating new sentient creatures out of nothing with no higher justification required than her own enjoyment. No serious thoughts about the implications, no ethics committee, no nothing.
I mean... I know it's a children's programme, and not meant to be taken deeply, but... surely the philosophical implications are huge?
Could you imagine the real-world consequences of people just being able to create new sentient, conscious beings without any real oversight? What a strange world that'd be...
Then I realised that's precisely the world we live in (and indeed the reason we have children's TV).
Posted 2011-09-11.