Don’t Let Machines Win, Empathy Will Be Lost

One of my all-time favorite science fiction writers and general science writers, Isaac Asimov, produced a series of writings in the 40s and published a collection of these stories five years before I was born. It was 1950, and the title was “I, Robot.“

He envisioned a time when machines would be able to serve, yet exist entirely on their own, with a purpose to support the world around humans. He developed the rules by which they would exist, and even gave these rules a title that you may remember from their numerous uses in the modern world.

• The Three Laws of Robotics: The core concept revolves around the Three Laws, which Asimov established:
  • A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  • A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

While perusing my morning reading, an email cautioned the world not to let ourselves become so immersed in empathy that is brought to us by our modern machines and systems. In my view, I would describe it as “empathy burnout.” So many needs, so little time, it’s easier to click “like” or “heart” and move on. Eventually, as the machines load up the empathy needs, we will reach the point of not responding with empathy, but rather with duty.

Then, we will lose our empathy.

You know the phrase, “And the hits just keep on coming…” It was first used by a radio Disc Jockey who spun up the hit records to play to the audience. While the phrase originally celebrated a succession of popular songs, it has broadened to describe any continuous series of events, whether favorable or unfavorable.​

If empathy burnout occurs, we stop caring about others. Mass shooting, plane crashes, traffic jams, inclement weather, financial markets, modern news that’s negative for some and not for everyone, or even that little chick that keeps crying out, “The sky is falling!”

Today is Good Friday. It’s not just about the Easter weekend and all its trappings. It would have been last night that Jesus was arrested and tried, and his ultimate death would have resulted overnight and into the morning hours. We’ve heard about it so many times! We want the weekend to be over.

There are no kids in my home and no grandchildren to gather around the fireplace and tell the story of His Death for all of us! If it’s become the same old story, perhaps we need to have a new audience!

I read another heartening statistic. More young people are turning to Christianity than anyone thought possible. If we accept the premise, we need to have our empathy turned on! Someone will hear the story with fresh desire. If we tell it the same old, tired way, though they are new, we will not have the empathy to experience it with them in a meaningful way.

Because I am who I am, I thought this question of empathy through, searched my scriptures, Googled the question, and then asked AI… Everything I had to search through was a machine environment, ranging from the printed page to the depth of internet search engines, and finally through an artificial intelligence that answered my questions decently enough.

If you are interested in reading my quick research on Empathy from an AI perspective, [Click Here.]

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