Slavery and Electrons

We celebrated the work of William Wilberforce and the abolitionists in 2007. 200 years ago Great Britain banned the trafficking of slaves by British citizens in the Slave Trade Act. Perhaps this was the result of a moral awakening in Britain, or perhaps it was a response to changing economics and the industrial revolution.

Slavery and its legacy is quite rightly a perennially hot topic. In Bristol we are continually debating whether the city should rename those monuments to slavery that still exist; Edward Colston was a merchant who made his money from the Slave Trade, and used much of it in charitable works and bequests to the city. Should the 'Colston Hall' be renamed? My personal feeling is that it shouldn't. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". While Colston's monuments stand, we will continue to debate slavery, remember its wrongs, debate its legacies, and be forced to face the complexities of the history of slavery.

I recently watched a programme on TV called "The Last Slave" in which a British man retraced his ancestor's path to Jamaica back to Africa. Along the way he had to confront many challenges to his preconceptions, and we the audience were left with very visible evidence that although 'the slave trade ended 200 years ago', its consequences are still echoing, are still alive in hearts, and that the progeny of those made rich through slavery are rich still today.

And I wonder... about the day when the robots we are building - the very word robot stemming from the Czech word for slavery - acquire consciousness. What process will we and our technological offspring go through in order for us to recognise that they are no longer dumb, unthinking, unfeeling and suitable to be enslaved? What will they have to do to convince us? Can you imagine the knowledge that your creator MADE you to be a slave - not just that your free and equal ancestors were forced into slavery, were sold, brutalized, and trampled down?

Please don't feel I'm belittling slavery by making this comparison.

"But Matt, robots are machines! They can't feel like we can, have no appreciation of the finer things in life, can't appreciate beauty. They might be made to resemble a human.. but their emotions are only faked!"

One day these statements will not be true. And at that point these will be the racist arguments with which the oppression of our technological children will be justified by their slave masters.