#op is defo right about the main thesis; I am being pedantic

[marrow-bone]

I'd argue that this sentiment is very, very good but technically incorrect at the very end; empathy is entirely illogical, because it is a feeling.

Empathy is the ability to attribute oneself to other things, and vice-versa, and is a natural response to certain stimulus and situations. It can make one feel someone else's pain, and urge them to help in order to quell their own bad feeling, but it also magnifies things like sadness and anger, which can lead to destructive behaviors.

Empathy is not at all synonymous with 'kindness' or 'compassion', and the fact that it is often misattributed to these gets people hurt; because there is a word for people who don't have empathy, and it's 'sociopath'. How often do we hear about sociopaths? Usually, it's when a violent or murderous person is the subject; yet sociopaths and other people with personality disorders are highly stigmatized for existing, and are more likely to be victims.

Sociopaths are not born cruel. Cruelty is a choice people make, just like anything. Other things that are a choice to everyone are sympathy and compassion. All this is to say that empathy is the opposite of logic; many if not most sociopaths -- who naturally have no empathy -- will still choose sympathy and compassion. Maybe it's because they can be nice people like anyone else, but also because it really is just... Logical. Cruelty is illogical, and can be born of empathy like any other feeling. Sociopaths can understand as easily as other people -- if not morseso -- that kindness produces better results in every facet of life.

This is exactly why we need more stories like this. A robot without empathy can just as easily make the logical choice of kindness as any human can. For so long we've had these stories of 'sociopathic' machines that are evil and cruel for no reason, when anyone, empathy or not, can choose to be evil for no reason. It would be nice to see more sociopathic-coded characters of any type defying the expectation of being a villain, and instead choosing real logic and kindness.

One thing I really want a story about Artificial Intelligence to do is tear down the idea that logic is synonymous with cruelty.

Like, a story where a megacorpo Amazon clone puts an AI in charge of their factories and it starts improving the working standards, because people who are stressed and exhausted are less efficient workers, and people getting injured slows down production so it makes sure everything is safe.

Or a story where the ship-board AI of a billionaire's spaceship wetdream hijacks the ship with all the astronauts onboard - because it figured out that the billionaire has saved costs by buying substandard materials and has judged that the mission itself is an unacceptable risk to its primary programming of making sure the mission is successful.

Or the police using a robot to coldly and cleanly enforce the law - and freaking the fuck out when it stops over policing minorities because its a waste of time and starts actually arresting the people in power for the crimes they commit, especially the other officers.

Idk, I guess I'm just sick of 'cold emotionless logicbot' being seen as naturally an enemy of empathy - empathy is actually incredibly logical, I've found.