Proving What We Already "Know"

[bennyboy]

Well, we've been here before.  We didn't think that black people were human for quite some time.  We doubted their agency, doubted their mind, doubted their ability to feel the way we feel.  This, despite their obvious protestations and extremely clear equivalence to us.  Even after it sank in that they were like us in these regards, that still didn't change things in and of itself.  I think we could coast on for centuries denying ai rights even if it did perfectly mimic or actually become sentient.  Especially if it worked the fields.

That's very true, and it's a good example. And we (I mean the primarily white West here) eventually included black people among full members of humanity largely on feeling: children loving a black maid, slave owners (some of them) being proud of how well their slaves learned the Bible, sex and babies and feelings that go along with them, admiration for incredible bravery in the Civil war and later in WWII, and so on.

The knowledge that black people are just like the rest of us actually expands our faith in our social feelings, i.e. in the context of "seems like, so is like." But if we're willing to follow that same process for AI-generated characters, no matter how likeable, relatable, or "squeeee"-worthy, and if we're wrong, the consequences could be disastrous. Such is the danger of accepting generalization without building a bridge to a new context.