It will still be a machine, won't be able to kill you unless you give it a gun. Our ethical rules generally show some respect to animals, because we can empathize with cruelty against them, but even that is relative (we 're not so sorry when we eat them). I see no reason why we should preemptively allocate ethical substance to a machine that thinks. Cruel as it may sound, if a robot is mean to me, i will unplug it.

All this talk about strong AI sounds more like science fiction fantasy. We need to realize that this simulation, even 10 years later will probably be extremely slow, taking minutes or hours to simulate 1 msec of brain activity (it would actually be interesting to have an estimate of the computing power that will be required).

> We need to realize that this simulation, even 10 years later will probably be extremely slow, taking minutes or hours to simulate 1 msec of brain activity

This is just a difference of degree.

How stupid would a real-life person have to be before you could put a bullet through their brain, effectively unplugging them?

How do you know that you are real and actually not a stimulation by some kid in another very advanced world? Do you like to be tortured by this kid, due to the lack of legal entities in that world that protect your consciousness?

If it's a simulation, that's also the only representation of the world i can have and can act upon. So i choose to ignore that possibility as inconsequential to existence and take the empirical stance of accepting the world because my senses tell me so. The alternative would be to wait forever for the simulation to end? The great thing about the brain as a machine is that it allows you to doubt about everything but it doesn't mean that all doubts are well founded. Also, why would the advanced alien get any satisfaction from torturing me, since she knows i will not know i 'm being tortured.

The law protects humans (our species), probably because it's an evolutionary beneficial strategy. More specifically it protects consciousness that arises in a central nervous system (hence the abortion debate). There is no reason to assume that abstract consciousness in itself should be protected, unless it benefits the human race. Suppose the software "Consciousness v1.0" could run on your PC, would you leave your PC on forever ? Run multiple copies? Stop the people who try to update it?