Unsurprisingly, many topics regarding robot life reflect human concerns. This column begins looking at some such topics of robot life. These topics include emotions and feelings, energy sources, reproduction, pre–installed experience, planned diversity, humor, social life, and quality of life considerations.
This column looks more closely at how reality stems from the firings of sensory neurons. Recall that this discussion questions, and tries to answer, how knowing about reality happens. This discussion can neither question nor answer whether or not reality exists. For now, we just presume that reality exists.
Another inadequately answered ancient question concerns reality. The question takes various forms. What is reality? Is reality real? Are our surroundings really what they seem? Are humans really what they seem? How does reality happen?
The question concerns life’s meaning. What is the meaning of life? This column also attempts answers which, though different, also may not seem satisfactory, at least to some people.
People have traditionally divided behavior into a number of sometimes different and sometimes overlapping types. Some types relate directly to our natural–science interest in behavior. We will consider several behavior types across two broad classifications. “Descriptive classifications” commonly come up first. The more scientifically useful “functional classifications” come up next.
Consider the common explanation that some change in behavior occurred out of “boredom.” We often hear this in the complaint form, “I’m bored,” although no inner agent, “I,” is available to “be” bored. The complaint could be, but usually is not, a verbal shortcut. Two words could stand in for over a dozen. “I’m bored” could replace a report that “the amount of reinforcement for current behavior has become too small to maintain the behavior,” so it is extinguishing (that is, undergoing a decrease in occurrences that may reach zero).
While the term values refers to reinforcers, and the term rights refers to access to values (i.e., to claims of access to reinforcers) the term ethics refers to respecting those rights claims for clear access to valued reinforcers. We define ethical behavior as behavior respectful of rights claims. Those who respect our rights claims earn the label, “ethical” or, rather, their behavior of respecting our rights claims earns the label, “ethical behavior,” and we appreciate the ethics we say they “show” by respecting our rights claims.
