Holodeck ethics and deepfakes

[Thebestoftherest]

What if you wanna rape that toaster?

If it lack the ability to regret one is it rape?

[Yukaphile]

[FaxModem1]

This reminds me of Westworld. For those unfamiliar, the premise is that of a giant theme park in which you get to play cowboy at a mockup western town. Similarly to a GTA style video game, or like Skyrim, there are plot hooks everywhere, but you can also just wander around going on a murder spree or, in a rather disturbing scene, one player just decides to play the bad guy and rapes and murders some NPCs because he wants to. Throughout the series, we see guests at the park just going hog wild and murdering people willy nilly.

Interestingly, at SXSW, they hosted a real world Westworld, and a lot of people enjoyed it, but there were people who just started bull rushing through and doing whatever they wanted , because that's the point, right? They forgot that this was reality.

Now I'm going to bring up something else, Deviant Art. There is a culture there of commissions and buying and selling of environments, props, models, etc. And people would get pay someone they knew to make it.

In DS9, Bashir got his program from an associate who he knew made programs. Bashir's personal programs were his own private business until everyone got involved because of a transporter accident. Quark once asked Jake if he wanted to work as a holonovel writer, and help create programs for people. So there would be an economy for it.

We also find out that it's illegal to just wander in to someone else's program:

BASHIR: Breaking into a holosuite during someone's programme is not only rude, it's illegal. I should call Odo and have you arrested.
GARAK: What an extreme reaction that would be. You must be very embarrassed by this programme.
BASHIR: I'm not embarrassed. I'm annoyed that you have intruded into my privacy.
GARAK: Privacy, indeed. I think it goes far deeper than that, Doctor. Ever since you received this new programme, you've spent virtually every free hour in the holosuite. But you haven't told anyone what the programme is.

I imagine that there would be similar laws in real life, and it would just be one of those things that you're not supposed to ask about unless they invite you in. I imagine that a lot of people would know the difference between fantasy and reality, and would keep those things private. The interesting question is if it would be like browser histories, and you would write into your will what happens to them after death.

[PapaPalpatine]

As far as making a holographic "real doll" of someone, you might get away with it if you have the good sense to keep it strictly in your own private collection and don't attempt to distribute/sell copies and are careful that the person replicated doesn't ever find out about it. The obvious example: Counselor Troi would've never found out about "The Goddess of Empathy" if it weren't for indiscretions on Lt. Barclay's part. Always clear your History before leaving the holodeck...

[Yukaphile]

Even so, that's like hacking into somebody's online game network. With how they broke in, and didn't even flipping discontinue.

[Simplicius]

I'm a quite extreme libertarian when it comes to things like intellectual property and the right to privacy so my view is that what some does (including what they create) is his or her own business.

Then again, Star Trek's depiction of holodeck technology is probably some of its absolute worst science fiction. You have episodes like "Nothing Human", where the Federation can programme medical knowledge (and presumably other kinds of knowledge) that is otherwise unknown to their data banks somehow. The writers often treat the technology like it's magic.

Whilst the weirdness with the EMH himself can be written off as a glitch (the long term breakdown of his programme as a result of overuse - an idea they played with early on but then abandoned), the episode "Flesh and Blood" was when it became straight-up Harry Potter nonsense. Like, the Hirogen programmed them to "bleed and feel pain" ... what? That doesn't make any sense. A hologram is a hard light projection that behaves according to software scripting not an object that gains life over time like it's been roaming around the Forbidden Forest.

So, my views are based on the idea of holodeck technology, rather than the "reality", as it were. In reality, there'd probably have to be laws against certain things, since you can apparently turn holograms into sentient beings just by turning up a dial or whatever.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

Holodecks/Deepfakes are technologies that allow inner fantasies to be replicated externally in the real world with various degrees of realism, while the person who has these fantasies gains a greater stimulus they do so at the trade-off that their desires are laid bare for potentially anyone to see them.

What if the reverse were the case ?

What if there was a technology that allowed for the following scenario:

Person A sees person B and is attracted to them, person A then privately masturbates while imagining B or when having sex with someone else imagines B.

Due to this technology person B is aware of this and does not approve.

Should A have gotten B's permission before using their imagination ?

Should A be legally require to stop using their imagination if B does not approve ?

If A does stop after B informs them they should stop, did the fact that it happened at least once deserve some legal consequences ?

What if it's not intentional it's just a flash thought when they see B looking very fine one day ?