Slashdot linked yesterday to this fascinating report in the New Scientist about European programers who are creating a colony of artificially intelligent sims. The sims are fairly sophisticated, able to learn, requiring "food" and "shelter", and having the ability to communicate. The researchers hope that they will learn to cooperate, develop a languange, etc.

The idea of this really stirs my imagination. It brings up something that I've sort of felt for a while, which is that we can already create very sophisticated AI, so why not just create them with strong abilities to interact with each other and their environment, put a bunch of them together, and just let it go and see what happens. This is basically exactly what they're doing. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they will suprise us. I for one am really looking forward to seeing what they end up doing.

It also brings up the old question of the moral responsibility to artificially created life. When are these creatures that we create alive enough that we have a responsibility for their well being? The article doesn't mention it, but do they feel pain? They must if they feel desires or needs. I for one hope the researchers feel a little bit of hesitation if and when they go to turn the simulation off.