SaneAmongInsane said:
I feel if you accidentally create a Sentient toaster, while that toaster does eventually deserve it's freedom, you don't deserve to go completely Toast-less. Either the toaster must fill it's obligation until there is a suitable replacement or a certain amount of time has expired as "payment" for its creation... After all the parts that make it up didn't spawn from nothing.
If I'm understanding you correctly, the assertion you're making is that "A sentient entity's obligation to the purpose for which it was designed is more important than that entity's autonomy." Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Bearing that in mind, let me pose to you a question: is a human being obligated to procreate, thereby fulfilling their "purpose" of passing on their parents' (i.e. "creators'") genome?
One could argue that procreation is not necessarily the purpose of human existence, and I would agree. I believe that our only purpose is that which we define ourselves. But if we consider the reason an entity exists to also be its purpose, then we (humans) have a single, ultimate biological imperative: to reproduce. We exist only because our ancestors reproduced---3.5 billion years of iterative procreation, each iteration producing a population slightly more capable of procreation than the last. In a sense, life is "designed" to procreate, much as your Toaster is designed to make toast.
But some humans choose not to procreate, and I think that's okay. Such people are simply exercising the autonomy bestowed upon them by their sentience.[footnote]I'm ignoring the prickly issue of various non-sentient entities' (e.g. animals') relative autonomy, as the specific issue outlined in the OP is whether or not the Toaster's sentience grants it autonomy.[/footnote]
Now, there
is a clear difference between our respective framings of the situation; that is, your Toaster-maker never
intended for his creation to be sentient, whereas any human parent knows full well (or can at least reasonably assume) that their child(ren) will be. That does not, however, change the fact that the Toaster
is fucking sentient, and apparently demonstrably so. The Toaster-maker can communicate with their Toaster, and can reasonably attempt to understand its thoughts and desires (if any). If the Toaster
wants to make toast for the Toaster-maker, then that's cool, let it make some toast. But if it doesn't, I think the Toaster-maker should respect his Toaster's apparent wishes
to the extent he would those of any human.[footnote]The "to the extent . . ." bit should really go without saying, but there's always that
one ************ who'll be all like: "But what if the Toaster wants to kill people?!"[/footnote]