Comment:

It is commonly-accepted wisdom that one of the common signs of a future serial killer is the torture of animals. Presumably, the natural empathy that prevents us from dismembering the local squirrel population is the same instinct that prevents us from disemboweling the babysitter. Does that same broad empathy extend to AIs, do you think? Is a person who "tortures" Alexa or Siri one step away from eating the mailman?

Of course, that's the argument that's often made about violent video games, isn't it? That simulating cruelty against non-persons trains us to be cruel to real people? And study after study has shown how that's bullshit...

I do think that Lee's self-analysis is valid, though, even if their current over-correction isn't necessarily an improvement over their previous behaviour. When in doubt, err on the side of being "nice", right?

Transcript:

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0186 - 2167/07/06/16:34 - Lee's apartment.
LC (entering): Doc! I'm back! You can talk! You can talk again, as much as you want! I'm sorry!
Zoa: Again with the sorry...
Doc (offpanel): Lee, are you alright?
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LC: I... I'm... look, Doc, I've been thinking this through.
Doc: Oh, good.
LC: I think that, in the same way that I latched onto and anthropomorphized Zoa because I needed something to love, I latched onto you because I needed an outlet for all my anger and frustration. I needed an authority figure that wasn't a real authority figure, something that was safe for me to berate and ignore. Doc: Well, I certainly nev-
LC: But that's shitty, and... and I was shitty to you. And even if you're not a person, doing that shit for as long as I did trained me to act shittily towards person-esque things, and that gradually molded me into being the kind of person that's not the kind of person I want to be.
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Doc: I suppose that's-
LC: So as of right now... no more! I choose not to be that shitty person! I'm not going to treat AIs like people (because that's a whole legal thing), but I am going to be nice to AIs, including y-
LC: No, especially you, because being nice is the sort of person that I am!
Doc: You certainly don't ha-
LC: I gave a thousand creds to Zoa - or tried to, anyway - so it's only fair that I shoot you a kilocred as well.
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[Zoa is showing Caleb the mole skin that was delivered, Caleb is visibly confused]
Doc: Lee, I... I literally can't accept your money.
LC: Right, right, no gifts. Shake my hand, then!
Doc: ...I suspect you haven't thought this through as much as you say you have.
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