Eben Moglen: Time To Apply The First Law Of Robotics To Our Smartphones

[Brad]

Andy Greenberg's article from Forbes.com today:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/06/26/eben-moglen-time-to-apply-the-first-law-of-robotics-to-our-smartphones/

excerpt:

Isaac Asimov would not be proud.

Seventy years ago, Asimov created the “first law of robotics”: the idea that robots of the future would obey a rule rooted deep in their programming: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” By the year 2015, as his short stories predicted, even outmoded droid models would obey that maxim.

But now we’ve nearly reached that date. And according to free software pioneer, futurist and activist Eben Moglen, that fundamental law of robot ethics has yet to be coded into the most ubiquitous bots in our lives: our smartphones...

...

Moglen isn’t known for his moderate stances on digital freedom issues. He’s described Steve Jobs as a “moral monster” and called  Mark Zuckerberg “ a little thug in a hooded sweatshirt” who “ has done more harm to the human race than anyone his age.”