Interstellar law makes developing an artificially intelligence but sentient being to be illegal. It is not illegal, however, to possess such a program and as of 2379 the courts have ruled that any sentient program / android is declared to be a sentient life form under the law and therefore entitled to all of the rights and privileges granted to any sentient life form.
Current Criteria
The current criteria for what a sentient program / android give a dividing line from what is a sophisticated computer program and what is alive. Standard definitions of life do not apply to artificial life, however, and thus new criteria had to be made.
- Intelligence
- Self Determination
- Self Sacrifice
- Awareness
- Choice
- Feeling
Intelligence
The ability to learn and adapt to new situations and then recall from and build on previous knowledge to synthesize new ideas from information already known.
Self Determination / Self Sacrifice
The ability to go beyond ones own programming. This ability to determine ones own purpose, set goals, and work toward meeting those goals with regards to ones own life. In doing so, alter ones programming to suit current needs without the need for external assistance. Also the ability to go against ones own best interests when called upon to do so.
Awareness
Being not only aware of ones self and others but also aware of the ethereal quality of life and the questions which define sentient existence. To be able to be aware of and question ones own purpose, where one came from, and why one was created. To contemplate exitential concepts such as Plato's Cave and similar ideas that question what existence is.
Choice
The ability to choose outside the bounds of ones own program but to make choices between conflicting ideas, impulses, and desires.
Feeling
The ability to feel in the sense that certain events (external or internal) and alter ones state of mind and perception of ones surroundings in a persistent and somewhat uncontrolled way. To be able to intuit beyond facts about a situation and judge based on intuition.
Freedom of Choice
Since AI's currently have the freedom to choose does not mean they have a requirement to choose. Declining to choose to change ones current purpose does not preclude the judgement that an AI is sentient. The law simply states that they have the ability to do so, not that they must do so.
Procreation
While in biological life forms it is understood to be a right to procreate and a biological function. The courts still have not decided if there should be an exception made for AI's to procreate and create new AI's. This is still a hotly debated topic both ethically and legally.
Foundation
In 2365 a case came before the Judge Advocate General office of Starbase 173 about if the sentient Android Data could refuse an experimental refit. The proposal was to disassemble the android after downloading his memories to a computer in an attempt to copy the design of his positronic brain. This case laid the groundwork for the future rights of artificial beings and artificial intelligence in general.
Criteria for Sentience
- Intelligence
- The ability to learn, understand, and cope with new situations
- Self-awareness
- Being conscious of one's existence and actions or aware of one's self and one's ego
- Consciousness
While it has always been difficult to put the third criteria into measurable terms, this initial ruling laid the groundwork for future legislation and challenges to give artificially intelligent entities status as sentient life forms.
Rights as an Author
Then later in 2378 a case came into civil court about if the Emergency Medical Hologram of the USS Voyager had the rights of sentient life forms over his own creations, a holo-novel he had authored. The court ruled at that time that he was not a sentient life form but gave him the status of artist which affords him similar rights.
Consciousness
Shortly thereafter in 2379 a larger case involving the QUINN Type AI brought back the three criteria from 2365 and attempted to use those to justify the distinction that a sophisticated enough program could be considered to have consciousness if it met the following criteria:
- Self Determination
- The program is not restricted to its own programming and can actively seek to alter its own program
- Efforts to alter its own program cannot be made through external means, but must come from within
- Awareness
- Not only aware of its own actions as previously stated in 2365 but aware of the existential quality of existence
- Ability to see the world in abstract terms and apply those abstractions to concrete events of life
- Understanding and Choice
- Able to choose to go against its own programming in the moment
- Feel
Feelings
Due to the previous distinctions made in 2365 of declaring the android Data to be sentient, before he was given the emotion chip, the definition of feelings took on a different quality. Although the emotion chip given to him by his creator allowed him basic emotion, this brought up the stark question as to what a feeling is and what is it to feel. It was universally agreed upon that the ability to feel in an abstract sense was necessary to being a conscious and sentient being.
It was determined that even before the emotion chip the android Data could feel things just not emotions particularly. He expressed many times feeling feelings of missing his friends when they were gone or being more comfortable when his friends were there. He also felt a separateness from the majority of his ship mates in areas of family and emotional attachment, aware of his own different-ness and when interviewed described this as having a negative effect on his state of mind. Later upon getting the ability to dream, there were multiple instances where he experienced preoccupation with disturbing imagery, a need to creatively pursue images from his dream program, or in one instance feeling the need to eradicate images he saw in a waking dream state.
While not able to define feelings with emotions precisely, the legal time defined feelings as being able to have a persistent alteration to ones state of mine due to the internal considerations of owns thoughts and thought processes.