Human rights for robots?

According to Financial Times, a new paper sponsored by the British government discusses the possibility of extending human rights to robots (at some point in the future). The scariest part of the paper suggests that intelligent robots may eventually receive voting rights and "full social benefits . . . including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time." [Financial Times]

In an unrelated story (hopefully!), the trailer for Steven Spielberg's new Transformers invasion movie just came out, and it looks awesome. I am definitely a member of the Transformers generation, and I still have Soundwave (the Decepticon who doubles as a mid-80's boombox, pictured above) sitting on my bookshelf.

"UK report says robots will have rights" [Financial Times]
Soundwave [Toybin.org]
Transformers Movie Trailer [Yahoo!]