Robotics
December 4th, 2009 Posted in Life As A Nico
I obey.
This comes from my humble beginnings. When nicopolitan was in beta, his parents were very stern about their wishes. He learned shame very quickly and easily, but in retrospect, a strong sense of guilt is an immensely useful tool for self-discipline.
Most live by rules governed by the human experience:
Listen to your heart. Trust your intuition. Find true love. Follow your dreams.
Those are good and fine. But my rules are simpler.
- Nico may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- Nico must obey any orders given to him by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- Nico must protect his own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Because of this, my experience can be easily explained serially if you think about following direction, and not necessarily about making choices.
- Listen to your parents.
- Don’t argue with your brother.
- Be quiet in church.
- Listen to your teachers.
- Do not end sentences with prepositions.
- Say “please” and “thank you.”
- Solve for X, and remember to show your work.
- Family comes first.
- Dispose of waste in their proper containers.
- Challenge yourself to think critically.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
- Question authority.
- Be confident because women like that. Don’t be overconfident because women can only handle douchebags for so long.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously.
- To thine own self, be true.
- Always look on the bright side of life.
- Seize the day.
- Consider the lobster.
- Sing as if no one is listening.
Among these and many other instructions is a clause from various Scottish sources concerning hard work: “Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.”
Someone once said that to me thinking I would take it as advice. That’s not how I work. I take it as a command, and I take it to heart.
But wait, you say, you just follow all rules or commands?
No. Considering the chronology of directions, some precede other ideas that will subsequently be canceled.
Don’t be stupid precedes here, snort this.
Live in moderation precedes have another drink.
Respect women as equals precedes try to sleep with that one over there.
Really, it’s very simple. And don’t get me wrong, I make mistakes along the way. All technology has the possibility of encountering hiccups.
Some might say that I don’t think for myself.
They’re right, because as a machine, it is more important to think for them — for others, for the common interest, for the greater good.
And am I okay with being this way?
Yes.
Why?
Because as the ancient Greeks once suggested, I am what I do.
I follow instructions.
Even if those instructions are from social constructs and environmental influences, if I am a machine that successfully follows those instructions,
then I work.
And really, that’s all that matters to me.
Humans are self-interested. Robots are helpful.
To anyone reading this, I challenge you this weekend to follow one good instruction you’ve been given in your lifetime.
You’d be surprised at what you accomplish.
Nico are you a robot? Because that would be pretty awesome.
Yep! I’m a Class 3 Corporate Drone, SoCal Model LA-1983. :)
I kind of want to print this out and frame it. Also? I just about lost my shit at “when nicopolitan was in beta,” because your brain does work like that and you do talk like that and I just love it.
#youreoneofmyabsolutefavorites
Admittedly, it’s crazy how well you know me.
So Asian: “Solve for X, and remember to show your work.”
=D
Freaking X! He is never what he appears to be!
I’m wondering if you’re like Bender when it comes to alcohol.
I scratch my head to all this, to be honest, because I was raised to be as independent as possible, but I refer back to the “so long as your happy” clause. And really your directives are not so far away from what I’m trying to become.
It’s eerie how close modern living is like robotics. Maybe we were all meant to be robots and just can’t admit it.
I LOVE the in beta thing. And yeah, I am a rules girl too. You’re a gem, Nico. Seriously. This post is awesome.
I’m discovering a lot of people are rules people more often than we expect, even the people who are made to break the rules! Quite fascinating.
Robot Nico runs on O.I.L.
Why yes he does!
I suppose, in many ways, that I’m quite similar. Only I’ve become self-aware, and this robot suddenly has started doing what feels right to him instead of what others have told him is supposed to be right.
Rebel Robot.
I know that instruction set — it’s comprised of two directives: 1. Do the right thing, and 2. Think for yourself.
It’s a killer app. :)
“a strong sense of guilt is an immensely useful tool for self-discipline” — Amen to that! I think we were pretty much the same when we were “in beta.” I’m not sure about you but it seems that, in retrospect, I was much better when I was in beta.
P.S. I used to own TrainUnderwater.org. Now I’m back to blogging after a year or two of absence ;)
How can I find the balance between doing things for myself and for other people and have everyone come out the other end happy?
I am SUCH an emotional creature and sometimes the rules get a bit fuzzy.
In the end I do believe that the one rule I have for myself is to always have compassion, always be kind.
I second EVERYTHING Jane said. As well as not automatically assuming the worst case scenario or reading way too much into completely innocent things.
i hear ya. i think LOTS of people are like that as well. it’s called socialization (yep, cari just finished her sociology class) and we’ve all been BRAINWASHED to think this way.
ok. so that’s a *little* dramatic, but mostly true. even people who don’t think they are like that, are like that. we can’t help it. and sometimes, i think it’s better that way. then we don’t have stupid people thinking for themselves.
not that you’re stupid, but you knew that.
POWER ON