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Is it okay to knock someone unconscious and then wake them up again?

Sure, people do that all the time, every day. They’re called anesthesiologists.

the obvious differentiator being consent...

Not really. People who come into a hospital unresponsive may need emergency surgery. In that case, obtaining consent from them is impossible, yet, ER docs, anesthesiologists, and surgeons clearly have no ethical problem administering general anesthesia without consent, in such a case.

A more accurate parallel to the ER scenario would be replacing hardware in an AI. In which case I would assume, like a human, the AI would "realise" it was a necessary action for it to "live".

But the question remains, if it is not _necessary_ to the AI's proper functioning, would it be okay to turn it off? A human parallel to that is more like sedating your workers when they're not needed.

In the case of children (or even pets) it’s up to guardians (or owners)...

Yes, if, like the robot, you own that person. That seems unlikely though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com