[JamesP81]

If we succeed in creating an AI, will that change your views on religion or make you an atheist?

For me, personally, no. It would be no different that a test tube baby: it's still a person, and destroying it would still constitute murder before God. Any truly artifically intelligent computer would, IMO, be legally entitled to the same constitutional rights as anyone else.

Here's an interesting thought: such a being could, in a very real sense, be considered an alien (not the illegal kind, the little green men kind) because it's an intelligent being that's not human (unless we base it on a cloned human brain, a la wetware solution I talked about in #27).

[Fitzcarraldo]

because it's an intelligent being that's not human (unless we base it on a cloned human brain,

I don't anticipate any restrictions or ethics or primary design principles will be implemented save those that expand the SI's capabilities as quickly as possible. We've seen this happen before in human technological development, save for the restrictions the Amish place on introduction of new techonology to their culture. SI is to the 21st century as nuclear weapons was to the 20th. The only difference is that nuclear weapons are controlled by humans. SI will not be.