Sunday, January 20, 2008

Question about grief?

This human emotion is weird. We all have them, but we all show it differently. We all show it towards differnt stuff and for differnt reason.

Human grow attachment to each other, that's why we grief when one of us pass. But at the same time, we are capable of killing each other and not feel a thing. We are just all alike, shouldn't we all care for each other? But if we are like this, then why do we need guns?

When one thing dies, even if it is not human, the person close to it will feel grief. Because of emotional attachment for what ever reason. But if we can have these kind of feeling for non-human, then why cant' we have the same feeling for others?

We also grow attachment for non-living thing. As a little kid, we might have attachment for a toy. We are sadden when that toy is lost or get broken. As we get old, we have emotional attachment for other stuff. Video game system, car, computer, house, and a country. We have the same emotion toward any other thing that we are close to, just like people.
But why? They are just inanimate object, do they really need us to feel for them?

No one can answer that, our brain chemistry is too complex.
But as technology advance, computer get more and more sophisticated, and computer AI or robots will be very common. We would grow attachment to them like how we are attach to other human. What would happen then? If our computer crash, would we have a funeral for it? But will we treat them the same way? Will we treat robots like a human friend or a manufactured slave? Will we grow emotional attachment toward them?

There was one study that I've read in a magazine while I was shopping in mijer. It was about an experiment where a group of scientist putting a robot baby into a group of real babies. They used babies as test subject because the are not taught by society to treat anything differently. The robot acts like a real baby, but don't really look like a real baby. After a while the real babies grew attachment toward the robot baby. They shared toys and played together. The real babies treat the robot baby like his peers. But after the while, the robot baby is programed just to dance. The real babies soon lost interest.

The babies in that experiment was too young to have the grief emotion. But what if this experiment was done on a group of older people? Will they feel grief if the robot suddenly lost it humanity like programing?

Human are too complicated for anyone to have a definite answer to answer these kind of question.
Hell, why am I even asking these kind of questions? I know no one can answer them.
Why do I over analyse these thing? Why am I so interested in the thought process of our self?

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