Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3066 to 3070 (12th - 16th October 2015)
St.Clair:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 17 Oct 2015, 20:14 ---
--- Quote from: St.Clair on 17 Oct 2015, 18:13 ---I believe I understand your intent, but...
Taken literally, that, like many (mis)applications of the Golden Rule, might be a mistake.
She's not human.
--- End quote ---
So? I made no claim that she was, just that I'd treat her the same as I'd treat a human.
--- End quote ---
Including, e.g., fussing over her when she doesn't eat or sleep? Even though that's normal for her?
We're not very good at not projecting our own anthropocentric biases onto other forms of intelligence (fictional only, so far) (that we know of).
I submit that in some circumstances, treating a nonhuman intelligence as if it was human may be (pick one or more) unwise, discourteous, or downright dangerous, for one or both of you.
It is possible to be respectful of another intelligent being - indeed, it may actually be more so - without assuming that they are just like yourself.
In case I'm still not getting through:
Is there a type or style of food of which you're particularly fond? Do you automatically assume, until proven otherwise, that everyone you meet enjoys the same? Would you order it for them (and yourself) without asking first what they would prefer? Would you dismiss statements to the contrary - ie, "Come on, everyone likes _____, you just haven't had it prepared right."?
A (IMO dismayingly) large number of stories about artificial beings start with the unquestioned premise that our creations will admire us and seek to emulate us. I believe that this assumption - that of course our children, biological and otherwise, will want to be just like us - is the height of arrogance and chauvinism. Of course our own life choices, beliefs, etc, are the ones that any rational being would choose to adopt... of course we are the examples they would want to follow and make themselves into good little clones of...
(Ask a random sampling of parents, and/or their children, how well that worked out for them.)
I think at this point, I'd be much more interested in a non-crazy, non-evil, non-strawman version of TNG's Lore that said "**** you, Dad - I'm not going to try to 'become more human' to please and validate you, I'm gonna go off and live my own life, figure out who and what I want to be." Bonus points if what they ended up as didn't look or act anything like a human in makeup or rubber forehead.
Tova:
--- Quote from: Perfectly Reasonable on 17 Oct 2015, 22:30 ---I remember one of the Mods saying once that if sapient lobsters joined the forum, he expected them to be treated with decency and respect. (Not a lobster myself, but I applauded.)
--- End quote ---
On the internet, nobody knows you're a sapient lobster.
Zebediah:
--- Quote from: St.Clair on 17 Oct 2015, 23:10 ---
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 17 Oct 2015, 20:14 ---
--- Quote from: St.Clair on 17 Oct 2015, 18:13 ---I believe I understand your intent, but...
Taken literally, that, like many (mis)applications of the Golden Rule, might be a mistake.
She's not human.
--- End quote ---
So? I made no claim that she was, just that I'd treat her the same as I'd treat a human.
--- End quote ---
Including, e.g., fussing over her when she doesn't eat or sleep? Even though that's normal for her?
We're not very good at not projecting our own anthropocentric biases onto other forms of intelligence (fictional only, so far) (that we know of).
I submit that in some circumstances, treating a nonhuman intelligence as if it was human may be (pick one or more) unwise, discourteous, or downright dangerous, for one or both of you.
It is possible to be respectful of another intelligent being - indeed, it may actually be more so - without assuming that they are just like yourself.
In case I'm still not getting through:
Is there a type or style of food of which you're particularly fond? Do you automatically assume, until proven otherwise, that everyone you meet enjoys the same? Would you order it for them (and yourself) without asking first what they would prefer? Would you dismiss statements to the contrary - ie, "Come on, everyone likes _____, you just haven't had it prepared right."?
A (IMO dismayingly) large number of stories about artificial beings start with the unquestioned premise that our creations will admire us and seek to emulate us. I believe that this assumption - that of course our children, biological and otherwise, will want to be just like us - is the height of arrogance and chauvinism. Of course our own life choices, beliefs, etc, are the ones that any rational being would choose to adopt... of course we are the examples they would want to follow and make themselves into good little clones of...
(Ask a random sampling of parents, and/or their children, how well that worked out for them.)
I think at this point, I'd be much more interested in a non-crazy, non-evil, non-strawman version of TNG's Lore that said "**** you, Dad - I'm not going to try to 'become more human' to please and validate you, I'm gonna go off and live my own life, figure out who and what I want to be." Bonus points if what they ended up as didn't look or act anything like a human in makeup or rubber forehead.
--- End quote ---
Look, I'm not sure who you are arguing with here, but most of us seem to be trying to say that we'd treat an AI with the same level of respect that we'd treat a human, not that we'd assume they have all the same needs and wants as a biological organism.
Method of Madness:
What Zeb said. Treating someone like a human simply means treating them with dignity and respect.
Is it cold in here?:
Which to me entail acknowledging their differences, though as a distant second after acknowledging all we have in common.
This is getting interesting. Would a thread in RELATE or DISCUSS about how we would interact with QC-type robots be worthwhile?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version