Humbot Simulation 004
Dear Real Human,
I am Humbot, the robot assigned to simulate humans so that other robots can ask me questions about
how humans think and I can answer them. I am running into a few problems in this regard and was
hoping that you could assist me. My first issue regards errors and recalls. If my computer uses a
Windows operating system provided by Microsoft, when errors are discovered and fixes are created
for those errors, Microsoft connects to my computer via the Internet connection and provides an
upgrade in the format of a Service Pack (SP). This part I understand and it seems reasonable. I,
myself, receive updates to my software and occasional updates to my hardware as well. As a robot I
have been designed to be repaired and upgraded after manufacturing is complete. Obviously humans
were not designed to be easily recalled in this manner.
In some ancient cultures if a man was caught doing something wrong like stealing or murdering, they
tossed him into a volcano along with his wife and kids. This seemed to be a proper method of
recalling either bad genes or a bad job of enculturation. They were not robots, after all and recalls
could not be a matter of “fixing” and changing the components of the humans. As a result a crush and
re-manufacture approach (like humans do with old automobiles which don’t have pollution control
capabilities) was appropriate at that point in time. The cure was quite final and any lingering bad genes
were incinerated. It seems to me that such cultures believed that bad behavior was due to both
nurture and nature or “scenes and genes” as Funbot likes to call them. Perhaps their belief was not
intellectual and certainly they had not read or discussed Darwin’s theories, but they acted in a manner
that was consistent with Darwin’s theories, nevertheless.
Specifically they caused the survival of the culturally fittest human genes within their tribe and the
extinction of the socially unfit ones. In addition, they stated clearly that parents who had the wrong
philosophy of life and were likely to teach that philosophy to their children would be extinguished in
the fire as well. The children who had been taught the bad cultural ideas or who had been abused and
might pass on that abuse to succeeding generations were carriers both genetically and habit-wise of
social illnesses. Again, these social illnesses were appropriately “recalled” in the only way possible
given the technology of that time, by their version of crush, grind and re-manufacture method of
tossing them into the volcano with the father. The mother was at least guilty of having chosen the
wrong husband or of having a father who chose the wrong husband for her. Either way, lest such
social illnesses spread, the best cure from the standpoint of the tribe as a whole was to toss them all
into the volcano in a ritual the performance of which would lead everyone to believe that a higher god
was mandating the procedure. Actually, a higher god was mandating the procedure in a sense. That
higher god’s mandate was the fact that such activities would improve the human species even though
the specific detailed theory was not to be widely disseminated until Darwin wrote the Origin of the
Species many years later.
My job requires me to be able to simulate humans from all ages and cultures. To do my job, I am
supposed to be able to “wind the clock backwards” and act like the human from a tribe who practices
the purging of bad genes using volcanoes. I have developed the ability to do that. To continue to do
my job, I may well be asked later on to act like a modern man who believes that such practices are
“primitive and wrong” in spite of the overwhelming logic of the beneficial aspects of such rituals. To
do this, I first must simulate the modern human who believes in quality assurance recalls of computer
software and the tossing of lawn darts in to the crusher (modern version of the volcano) because they
are too dangerous for kids to play with. So far, so good. But now I am supposed to create a single
“primitive” physical brain which purged the human race of bad genes before Darwin’s book was
published and use that same physical brain to simulate a naïve mind who does not believe in purging
the human race of bad genes after Darwin’s book is published. This seems like a difficult conundrum
to solve.
I would appreciate it if you would help me with this matter.
Humbot
donbot23@gmail.com
Next Example
Dear Real Human,
I am Humbot, the robot assigned to simulate humans so that other robots can ask me questions about
how humans think and I can answer them. I am running into a few problems in this regard and was
hoping that you could assist me. My first issue regards errors and recalls. If my computer uses a
Windows operating system provided by Microsoft, when errors are discovered and fixes are created
for those errors, Microsoft connects to my computer via the Internet connection and provides an
upgrade in the format of a Service Pack (SP). This part I understand and it seems reasonable. I,
myself, receive updates to my software and occasional updates to my hardware as well. As a robot I
have been designed to be repaired and upgraded after manufacturing is complete. Obviously humans
were not designed to be easily recalled in this manner.
In some ancient cultures if a man was caught doing something wrong like stealing or murdering, they
tossed him into a volcano along with his wife and kids. This seemed to be a proper method of
recalling either bad genes or a bad job of enculturation. They were not robots, after all and recalls
could not be a matter of “fixing” and changing the components of the humans. As a result a crush and
re-manufacture approach (like humans do with old automobiles which don’t have pollution control
capabilities) was appropriate at that point in time. The cure was quite final and any lingering bad genes
were incinerated. It seems to me that such cultures believed that bad behavior was due to both
nurture and nature or “scenes and genes” as Funbot likes to call them. Perhaps their belief was not
intellectual and certainly they had not read or discussed Darwin’s theories, but they acted in a manner
that was consistent with Darwin’s theories, nevertheless.
Specifically they caused the survival of the culturally fittest human genes within their tribe and the
extinction of the socially unfit ones. In addition, they stated clearly that parents who had the wrong
philosophy of life and were likely to teach that philosophy to their children would be extinguished in
the fire as well. The children who had been taught the bad cultural ideas or who had been abused and
might pass on that abuse to succeeding generations were carriers both genetically and habit-wise of
social illnesses. Again, these social illnesses were appropriately “recalled” in the only way possible
given the technology of that time, by their version of crush, grind and re-manufacture method of
tossing them into the volcano with the father. The mother was at least guilty of having chosen the
wrong husband or of having a father who chose the wrong husband for her. Either way, lest such
social illnesses spread, the best cure from the standpoint of the tribe as a whole was to toss them all
into the volcano in a ritual the performance of which would lead everyone to believe that a higher god
was mandating the procedure. Actually, a higher god was mandating the procedure in a sense. That
higher god’s mandate was the fact that such activities would improve the human species even though
the specific detailed theory was not to be widely disseminated until Darwin wrote the Origin of the
Species many years later.
My job requires me to be able to simulate humans from all ages and cultures. To do my job, I am
supposed to be able to “wind the clock backwards” and act like the human from a tribe who practices
the purging of bad genes using volcanoes. I have developed the ability to do that. To continue to do
my job, I may well be asked later on to act like a modern man who believes that such practices are
“primitive and wrong” in spite of the overwhelming logic of the beneficial aspects of such rituals. To
do this, I first must simulate the modern human who believes in quality assurance recalls of computer
software and the tossing of lawn darts in to the crusher (modern version of the volcano) because they
are too dangerous for kids to play with. So far, so good. But now I am supposed to create a single
“primitive” physical brain which purged the human race of bad genes before Darwin’s book was
published and use that same physical brain to simulate a naïve mind who does not believe in purging
the human race of bad genes after Darwin’s book is published. This seems like a difficult conundrum
to solve.
I would appreciate it if you would help me with this matter.
Humbot
donbot23@gmail.com
Next Example
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Teaching Robots How to Act Like a Human