0097 - Bad-as-in-milk - 2019.08.12

Comic!

Comment:

"And what do you do, Mister Williams?"
"Me? Oh, I'm a cartoonist. I do comics and such on the Internet."
"A cartoonist, you say? Splendid. Are you any good?"
"Uh... 'good' as in 'skilled at my craft', or 'good' as in 'good vs evil'?
"...both."
"No."

Transcript:

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0097 - 2167/07/06/12:30 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
LC: So if one of the people who gave Socrates poison was somehow still alive and here with us today, you wouldn't think that they were a bad person.
Zoa: Well, they've evidently been alive for nearly three millenia, I'm sure they've done plenty of good to balance it out in the meantime. Or, if they haven't yet, they're still alive, so they could still do some good tomorrow.
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LC: So the ability to do good acts is what makes someone good, not the history of bad or good actions they've already done in the past?
Zoa: No, I told you, I have living humans hardcoded as good. As far as I'm concerned, if you're human and you're alive, you're good. The fact that you could choose to do something good is just a bonus.
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LC: Can an AI be good or bad?
Zoa: Can a knife be good or bad?
LC: Yes. It could be a dull knife. It could have a loose handle.
Zoa: But is being a dull knife the same thing as an AI being morally bad?
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LC: I think the problem is fuzziness about the words we're using. English is just too imprecise.
Zoa: Hey, speak for yourself. Like I said, I've got truth-reality-contexts for everything, my mind has no trouble keeping bad-as-in-Hitler and bad-as-in-milk straight.
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