polyglotplatypus:

turing-tested:

turing-tested:

turing-tested:

nobody ever talks abt AI and the theory of mind in relation to autistic people and it’s sad bc it’s such a fascinating intersection! people want to talk abt robots not having empathy or learning empathy but i really do relate to robots bc like. the idea that you just don’t have the programming to conceptualize and understand someone else’s mindset and emotions and still managing to excercise goodwill is so good. im trying not to go off but like. there’s so much about it and how we feel about AI and how society feels about autistic people that’s never discussed

TLDR that whole phillosphical discussion: “if a robot doesn’t have empathy how can it be a good ‘person’” is indicative of how society feels about those who have low empathy and kind of hurts but at the same time as someone with low empathy it’s fucking cool as hell to think about robots trying hard to be good anyways

“But….you have no empathy! How are you not evil?”

“Just because I can’t conceptualize the thought processes and emotions behind a human being doesn’t mean I have to be a jackass, but it’s really interesting how you somehow have empathy and still manage to be an asshole. Really. Tell me more about how you think I’m supposed to be evil.”

in general, autism impairs learning societal rules, and so i think the real big misunderstanding here is the same as with people confusing amorality with immorality. amorality is not having morals (and therefore being able to go with or against them without thinking about them), but immorality is going out of one’s way to go against morals.

and so while autistic people sometimes have a hard grasp on understanding other people’s feelings, it doesn’t mean they’re malevolent. just that they don’t understand. 

if i try to operate a new printer without having read the manual, i might accidentally break it, but i might also just make it work perfectly well. who knows. not me.