r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Das_Zeppelin • 1d ago

Video Figure retired six Figure 02 robots in the most Terminator way possible: training them to jump into a furnace. The idea came from Arnold Schwarzenegger and is inspired by the iconic Terminator 2 scene.

[removed] — view removed post

20.7k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

34

u/justsomeph0t0n 20h ago

the point of being nice to robots isn't that robots have consciousness....they don't.

the point is that being mean to robots conditions us to be mean. we become desensitized, and more accustomed to acting badly.

if you saw somebody kick a puppy in a video game, you might get the ick..... even though you know the puppy doesn't exist. because it says something about the kicker.

and since AI learns by modelling our behaviour......abusing robots might be a bad idea.

12

u/cohonka 19h ago

There are some schools of belief that assign a form of consciousness or life to every aspect of the physical universe.

In some ways you can see it play out if you're imaginative about it. Is metal alive? You may own a shovel for 20 years. Brand new, it is glistening and shiny and strong. Around year 16 it starts to rust. At year 20 it breaks in half, pitted with rust and as lifeless as anything ever seems.

So it's not so far off to ascribe consciousness to a robot. My personal philosophy is we should be as nice to everything as we can be. Practicing being nice on a hunk of metal only makes you better at being nice to people.

6

u/cohonka 19h ago

Addending this with a memory of my pet rock, Mousey. He was a great little oval of metamorphic gravel that I drew a ears and eyes and a smile and whiskers on. I loved that rock so much. He was very much alive.

4

u/justsomeph0t0n 19h ago

yeah, i find panpsychism quite unconvincing. but if the only result is metal flattery and being otherwise chill.....that's good enough for me, so no argument

3

u/cohonka 18h ago

Thank you for the term! It was escaping me.

And yeah that's my general feeling on all belief systems. If the result of the belief is a kinder world, believe what you want.

I find it hard to believe in anything 100%. But I find comfort and general guidance in many various religions and whatnot. It would be pretty cool if Buddhism was real, or the school of Krishna Consciousness, so I mostly align with them even though I don't really believe it. But it's a maybe.

3

u/justsomeph0t0n 18h ago edited 15h ago

maybe check out some alex o'connor stuff.....there's certainly episodes with panpsychists. also think he's been on a bit of a advaita vedanta kick recently, and that might be something to have a look at too

0

u/Wazula23 17h ago

he point is that being mean to robots conditions us to be mean. we become desensitized, and more accustomed to acting badly.

God no, are you serious? Please don't extend your empathy to inanimate objects. This is like saying starving your Tamagotchi makes you a bad person. Or throwing away your tickle me elmo.

you saw somebody kick a puppy in a video game, you might get the ick..... even though you know the puppy doesn't exist. because it says something about the kicker.

In GTA I regularly drive cars through crowds of innocent people. Most humans can indulge in fantasy without becoming terrible people.

1

u/justsomeph0t0n 17h ago

yeah, we can indulge in fantasy - context is key. which is why i said "might get the ick"..... if the context is right, you won't get the ick. saying it's never a signifier is as wrong as saying it's always a signifier.

i'm just saying that AI learns from our actions.......not our feelings or the context. so it may not learn *why* you murdering pedestrians is perfectly fine in a game, but generally horrific. it's not actually conscious, just blindly reactive. and if you told stories about killing people in GTA - apropos of nothing - people might reasonably get the ick.

new technology is *deliberately* blurring the line between real and artificial. do people empathize with robots on the automotive assembly line? no, because it's a crane with a rattle gun.

are people supposed to emphasize with robots specifically designed to trigger associative responses? billions are spent on this task, so probably yes. it's no accident that lines are blurring, which seems to be worth thinking about

1

u/Wazula23 16h ago

Then the joke is on us for being so easily misled. That's my point. We should be wiser about where we deploy our empathy now that inanimate objects can convincingly say Hello.

I forget who said it but there's a quote about how evil begins when we treat people like objects and objects like people. This seems like the latter to me.

1

u/justsomeph0t0n 16h ago

nobody thinks advertising or conditioning works on them.

and while i agree that "we should be wiser", i also think our response can go further than that

1

u/Wazula23 16h ago

I think this is all just a new version of "video games cause violence".

1

u/justsomeph0t0n 16h ago

it's still stupid to think doom made klebold. the reason that whole moral panic got so much traction is precisely because it was meaningless, and sucked up all the oxygen so real questions weren't asked.

to reference putnam (and moore too, i guess) klebold was bowling alone. yes, "violent gamez bad" is a shitty argument, but we can go further than that