you never know, homie

[darreneatworld]

here's something that will really get you thinking. it takes about ten minutes, and if you're anything like me, it will make you realise things about yourself that you may not have known existed. please give me your comments on this one!

link: the robot mind survey

Comments

Mel

[anonymous]

Humm. I did it...

I don't know. Seemed constructed in a poor way to me.
Like, such an emphasis on trying to make Peter appear morally flawed.
Flaws and the shit things people do are exactly what gives human life it's rich experience and diversity. So it was a bad trigger for making people think about him in comparison to a robot, if you get me?

Re: Mel

[darreneatworld]

i don't know if it's so much about making him look flawed as much as not giving the robot any emotions or anything that might hint at compassion/feelings/etc.

i'm starting to feel more like the thing that makes life what it is are the motivations behind what we do...the robot could be/probably is programmed to respond in certain ways depending on millions of particular variables, but the human's responses are all spontaneous and triggered by emotions. if you get me.

Re: Mel

[anonymous]

yeah exactly... that's kinda what i was getting at.

Or maybe i'm meam to theoretical robots.

Re: Mel

[oncepure]

Saying that human responses are spontaneous is a big call.

There is no proof that humans are anything but programmed to respond in certain ways depending on millions of particular variables (c.f. emerging behavior from simple systems/chaos/etc).

I think perhaps, at some point in the future, the human-centric view (that we are somehow different from animals or that we are somehow outside of natural law/determinism) will be as antiquated/humorous as the geocentric view is these days.

[anonymous]

I must say I found this quite hard to answer. I would catch myself thinking - "yeah I'll torture Peter and push him of a cliff..." but then realise that is ridiculous cos if actually forced to make the choice I doubt I would actually choose to kill person over a robot. But I wonder if one day my views will be antiquated and discrimination against robots will be frowned upon? Or maybe I just watch too much Futurama...

So I have left a comment here because you said in your new year post that you wanted more comments. I really enjoy reading your journal and I find that we share many of the same tastes in music, movies, politics,... etc, but I always feel that I am lurking around other people's livejournals. I don't like leaving anonymous comments but I don’t have a livejournal of my own.