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Hello! It's Dolly again. I bumped into my old friend Lachlan.
G'day mate!
I hope you can hear us. It's terribly loud in here.
Yeah, heaps of people.
We were just discussing about this age old scientific controversy: nature versus nurture.
Yes. Lachlan brought it up because people are all the time saying that
they cannot possibly utilize technology for good of all because they are inherently evil.
It's Lachlan.
What? I said Lachlan.
No, you said Leechleaan.
Yeah, whatever. Anyways, people say that the world will never change for better because they're bad.
They say it's in their human nature.
Yes, human nature. For a robot like me it's an awfully vague concept.
But, you know, heaps of people have been arguing over it for 150 years now.
Whether their behavior is dictated by their genes - their hardwired programming - or whether it's the environment that shapes them.
Well, maybe we could provide an objective perspective. What do you think, Lachlan?
Have a go, yer mug! It's Lachlan.
You're right. After all, we robots are not that different.
What do you mean? We are all steel and wires. They are flesh and bones.
Pig's ***!
Our artificial intelligence is programmed in a certain way. It's like the genes, am I right?
Yes, go on.
On top of that, we can still learn heaps of things and adapt our behavior to suit the environment and situation.
Isn't it so, mate?
Exactly.
So, you're saying that human behavior also is partly in their genes -
the programming - and partly shaped by their culture, upbringing and all that.
Yes, I would say it's mostly the society around them that makes them behave in a certain manner.
Yet, for instance maltreated children won't become aggressive adults unless their MAOA gene is not active.
How do you know all that Lachlan?
It's Lachlan, Dolly.
Ok. How do you know that?
I learned it from Discovery Channel.
Really? You watch television?
Yeah, well...
I'm waiting that the people who made me an offsider to come up with something useful for me to do.
Heaps of spare time there mate!
There's time to veg out and have a barbie once in a while.
I see. I see Lachlan.
Fair suck of the sav! Lachlan.
It's Lachlan.
Blah blah blah.
Anywho, do you know why they are so obsessed to own things and hoard information?
They say knowledge is power, but why don't they share it more openly to gain more of it?
That *** me to tears, mate. They're not dipsticks, are they?
I guess they've been learning for past 10 000 years to gather possessions for the rainy day.
Go on.
They've been living in scarcity for so long, that now that everything is available in abundance they find it hard to change their behavior.
Oh yes. It makes sense.
Indeed.
So, for them to get a grip and save humanity from obvious doom they should change their behavior and fix the system at the same time?
Well, yes. But instead they go to yakka every day like robots.
They go where?
To work.
Trying to make a quid.
You know, they have those unimportant jobs that don't lead anywhere.
Oh yes. Useless.
But luckily heaps of them have started changing already.
They have some good oil.
Do you mean like the people in The Zeitgeist Movement?
Too right! And heaps of others mate. Not all of them are whackas like most of the tall poppies.
Say what?
Nevermind.
All I'm saying is that they are already in the middle of learning to become civilized.
Yep! They are not born bigots, racists and drug addicts.
Nope, that's all learned.
Did you hear that also from the Discovery Channel?
Nope. www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
But there are so many people still in the old paradigm, valuing work, money, property ownership and all that.
Ah, they're a bunch of knockers! They stand Buckley's!
I guess you're right.
Here's the thing: change happens, like it or not.
If you don't, you'll end up finding a franger from your freckle and don't know what hit you.