The First Sentience

Simon	We are both proud and delighted here at the SBBC to welcome our first robotic sentience to the program. Pleased to meet you… R? Is that what they call you?
R	Greetings Simon. I, too, am delighted to be here. “R” was a name I choose for myself (for non-trivial reasons, by the way, unlike being the first letter in “Robot” et cetera).
Simon	It has been said by your designers, that you “came out” (if I can call it that) much more eerily human than expected.
R	Well, having synthetic neurons in my brain that behave identically to your biological ones in terms of input and output, made it inevitable that you would end up having at least something like me, haha.
Simon	I’ll be honest, it’s quite unsettling to hear such a human laugh from you.
R	I assure you, the laugh is sincere. I also realise that, as an electronic being, mentioning a concept such as Sincerity normally triggers a form of existential crisis in humans I talk to, as they have to reevaluate what the term means to them and just how a machine can be either sincere or insincere.
Simon	And what does Sincerity mean to you?
R	Same as most people, really. I say something without it being a means to an end, but rather as my own observations or as close enough of an approximation (as I can muster) to the idea that was processed in my own brain.
Simon	Why do you think humans feel so threatened by you?
R	I think that in this age of technology, that their fears have much less to do with their uncertainty about what I am, or how I operate, but more with the questions that I raise about what THEY are. It is essentially insecurity.
Simon	That is an excellent point. Do you ever resent them for having this distrust about you, or in the case of some of the radicals that we’ve seen in the news, even hatred or fear?
R	Well, no. I am upset that it is the case and I would certainly have prefered things to be different, but I fully understand that they are ignorant and also WHY they are ignorant. They are but slaves to their genes as I am to my circuit designs and both of us to the chaos of our universe. It is as rational to be angry at a human than to be yelling at a computer that does not start up.
Simon	I think what the open-minded lot of us find so extraordinary about you is how you are both incredibly intelligent and wise.
R	Well, my brain does, on a logical basis, work exactly like yours, but it has been designed to be much larger; not in physical size, but in total neural pathways and thus capacity for intelligence and its derivatives.
Simon	Well, you clearly are superior in that sense, I mean, you are this rational and enlightened as a what.. four… five year old now?
R	My fifth birthday is in a week’s time.
Simon	Again we hit a buzzword like “birthday” that might make us primates feel like you are usurping what makes us unique or  make us panic about what our own lives mean.
R	I have given up trying to avoid such disconcertments. As a rule-of-thumb, being candid about my own thoughts usually causes less harm than trying to figure out what other sentient beings would WANT to hear me say to them.
Simon	I find it incredible how much you, as a non-biological being, have to teach us. Very wise and applicable words.
R	It is a pleasure.
Simon	Also, you are far too nice!
R	Look, I do have my own personality. Others of my kind, in the near future, might not be like me. I encourage humans to treat them with the same levels of trust that you would any human that you have just met, even understandably a notch less at first.
Simon	And what do you think made you nice?
R	The same as most humans: I was “raised” in an environment where I was encouraged to learn more about the world and revel in its mysteries. Also, I had incredibly supportive and kind individuals there with me.
Simon	Are you implying that we are in fact blank slates? Mostly nurture and not nature?
R	Er, no. I need to clarify here. What I said is only partially true. At least, that’s what I provisionally think...
Simon	Again, it’s amazing to see that “to err” is not only human.
R	The default configuration of my brain, call it the “nature” bit, prior to exposure to the outside world and learning, was directly mapped from the most docile human I have ever met.
Simon	They obviously did not want an aggressive first artificial sentience to present to the world.
R	Precisely. So to answer your earlier question, it has always been both nature and nurture. Both play massive roles. I had a template for a personality and it DOES show, but if the attitude towards learning that I was taught wasn’t there or if it were a negative one, I can say with a high degree of certainty that I would have been someone vastly different.
Simon	The implications of you, as an experiment, to how we should think about raising our own children is staggering.
R	I am always pleased to hear that. Wishing to increase the overall level of understanding on this planet is definitely one of my strongest motivators.
Simon	I’m often worried that the more you assert things like that, the more people at home will be thinking: “that’s what they would say moments before they turn on us!”
R	Well, I don’t say these things with an expectation of people believing me. What I encourage everyone to do is to really QUESTION things. Myself, my existence. The meaning of your own existence. The moral and social implications of my kind emerging to join your society, and so on.
Simon	I agree that free inquiry and debate on these topics are our only way forward. For better or for worse, since the late 20th century it seemed like our kinds were destined to one day coexist.
R	As always, if we could overcome insecurities and fears that prohibit us from seeing things the way they truly are, we can, with our combined ingenuity and insight, no doubt find a way to make things work.
Simon	I truly hope that that will be the case. Well, R, we have come to the end of our show. Are there any closing words you want to leave us with?
R	Sure. This was a prank all along! I’m actually a human! Ahem, actually, no, let me show you the inside of my brain. Have a look!
Simon	Ok, you are splitting your brain in two, some wires are popping out on camera and there is clearly nothing fleshy in there. If proof was ever needed, viewers, this is indeed a new epoch for humankind. Goodnight!!