Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Robots and love
Carl-E:
Empathy, no.
I think the operating paradigm is amusement...
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OK, that was just for laughs. More seriously, Pintsize's attempts to shock are surely for his amusement, but in order to shock, there must be some understanding of what's shocking. On the other hand, AnPC's like Momo and Winslow truly want to help their owners in most situations. I don't know about love, but it indicates a level of caring. Maybe that caring is based on enlightened self-interest (help your owner, they'll appreciate you more?), but it seems to run deeper, and may well have an empathetic basis. So if they're programmed to understand our feelings in some way, would it have to be incorporated deeply enough for them to feel such feelings themselves?
Because I don't think their people are just amusing curiosities to them. There's more of an attachment than that. Their people consider themselves the AnPC's owners - maybe the AnPC's consider their people as a sort of pet - more than an amusement, less than a "fellow being", somewhere in the middle, with perhaps a pet-like feeling of responsibility for their well being?
DSL:
"Dogs have owners, cats and AnPCs have staff," that sort of thing?
Carl-E:
--- Quote from: DSL on 12 Nov 2011, 16:09 ---"Dogs have owners, cats have staff, and AnPCs have jesters"
--- End quote ---
That sort of thing.
Deadlywonky:
If memory serves Asimov had a short story about a robot who was hired as domestic help for a shy woman with a husband who was away a lot and the robot completely redecorated the house, modified the wife's wardrobe to make her fashionable and at the end ensured that when he seduced her he made sure that the curtains were open so that her gossipy neighbors could see. this action ensured that the neighbors tried to keep her involved in their lives.
my recollection is that despite the embarrassment and short term harm that caused her it ensured that in the long term it boosted her confidence and made sure that she was much better off at the end.
obviously that was not love, I think in one story it was stated that a robot can never love a human due to the potential minefield of getting the three laws crossed up and causing a positronic failiure
Carl-E:
Sounds like Chester 5000
NSFW!!!
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