What got this train in motion was realizing that you could teach a robot “tolerance” with a few lines of code. You simply have it reply to all behaviors and utterances “I accept this”. It doesn’t matter what the behavior or idea is. You blow goats (to use a Wayne-ism)? I accept this. You are a mass murderer? I accept this.
It is only in conditions of repugnance, of visceral rejection that tolerance truly becomes a virtue. It is only when you find it hard to accept someone that accepting them, via empathic identification, becomes a virtue.
And love, inherently, requires judgment of an extraordinarily subjective kind. It is not saying “good job” and hugging. These are mere outer manifestations, that again could easily be programmed with a few lines of code. “I hear you.” “You matter to me.” Code.
What it takes is a capacity to understand others, and help them on their own journeys, to help them learn to help themselves, to love themselves, to grow and expand. And this would not easily be taught to robots, even if humans even now approach being machines in their own programmed, stereotyped, reflexive reactions to a variety of stimuli.
Being nice, likewise, is a robotic virtue, if chosen as a default. If you feel genuine connection with others, kindness come naturally. But Ted Bundy knew how to be polite, and nice when it suited him.
The further I dig, the more strongly I feel that we all must retain some connection with our shadows, because failing to do so blinds us. It removes affective and perceptual possibilities. We are animals, too, still, here in this world. This fact does not disappear if we fail to acknowledge it. It hides.