It Thinks, Therefore . . . ?

In “The Measure of a Man,” the best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the only android in Starfleet, Data, is threatened by a human scientist, Bruce Maddox, who wishes to dismantle him, study his component parts, and create a myriad of duplicates. The weary Data insists he has a right to self-determination; the ambitious Maddox insists he’s a mere machine. A trial ensues. Captain Picard, representing Data, argues persuasively that manufacturing untold numbers of disenfranchised androids would establish a slave state. Indeed, the outcome of the trial will determine not only the singular Data’s rights, but the rights of an entire new race modelled after him. Dramatically, Picard asks Maddox, “Won’t we be judged by how we treat that race?”

As the philosopher Mark Kingwell contends in his latest book, Singular Creatures, the matter of human-robot relations must now move beyond the invented worlds of science fiction. We must explore the real-world...