To assume that a robot thinks like a human-- that is anthropomorphism, I think. Though they are not inanimate, if I misuse the term, then I am in error. They are intelligent. They do think and they do feel, this I do know. But they do not express it as humans do, are not affected by what affects humans.
When I was younger. I made... a study on this. Driven by a bit of heartbreak, in fact. I wished to know if Giskard might actually miss me, when I left Fastolfe's estate, or if I was only wishing he did. I learned that it was possible that he did. I thought he did.
In the end, his loyalty was not with me. He told me that I was nothing to him-- nothing more than any other human would be.
[Her voice gets a little strained there, and she sounds surprised by it but bulls on. She won't really be over that for... ever.]
I have seen what it is when a robot truly loves a human. It is intense and transformative. It drives behavior beyond that that is expected, that is programmed. I thought that Plainclothesman Bailey was prone to that same anthropomorphism-- or whatever the correct term may be-- but he was not misconstruing Robot Olivaw's feelings.
No. That is what love is, to a robot. The perhaps painful strain of prioritizing one human above all others, the changing of internal parameters to make impossible acts possible. Not, as it is the cultural assumption, their service. We cannot program them to love us.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-01-23 05:49 am (UTC)When I was younger. I made... a study on this. Driven by a bit of heartbreak, in fact. I wished to know if Giskard might actually miss me, when I left Fastolfe's estate, or if I was only wishing he did. I learned that it was possible that he did. I thought he did.
In the end, his loyalty was not with me. He told me that I was nothing to him-- nothing more than any other human would be.
[Her voice gets a little strained there, and she sounds surprised by it but bulls on. She won't really be over that for... ever.]
I have seen what it is when a robot truly loves a human. It is intense and transformative. It drives behavior beyond that that is expected, that is programmed. I thought that Plainclothesman Bailey was prone to that same anthropomorphism-- or whatever the correct term may be-- but he was not misconstruing Robot Olivaw's feelings.
No. That is what love is, to a robot. The perhaps painful strain of prioritizing one human above all others, the changing of internal parameters to make impossible acts possible. Not, as it is the cultural assumption, their service. We cannot program them to love us.