I wonder Praha will ever be able to communicate how important Chika is to her... not just returning a gift
Let's say that her just returning a gift because it's a social norm and 'what you do' wouldn't actually have anything to do with caring for other people. If you only do something because it is a law or a custom, you disregard your own wishes and the wishes of the people affected by your action. All of that you take out of the equation. This would be just going through the motions, maybe befitting of a robot although it surfaces in a lot of what people do every day.
Suppose Hiro does it to actually reciprocate (she did receive a kiss - but on the lips. How could she get this important detail wrong?), then this has to do with one of the principles of a good relationships or ethics: reciprocity or, simple put, fairness. You know, tit for tat; you do it so you don't get into trouble, because you don't wan't to be disrespectful, because they would be sad if you didn't and, of course, because most of the time they'll be overjoyed because of the present and, maybe much more so, by knowing that you actually care enough about them to treat them fairly. This is why we usually don't fuck people over.
When Hiro gave the ribbons to Chika in chapter two, it wasn't to reciprocate as it wasn't a return present but because she was 'sure Chika-chan wanted this ribbon'. I can't certainly speak for everybody, but I give presents because I like it when it makes the people I give them to happy. And I like that because of empathy, the second principle of ethics: I'm able to share in other people's feelings. We don't know if that was the reason Hiro did it, but it could be the reason.
We are empathic beings and love because out ancestors lived in environments that weeded out the individuals who weren't and who couldn't. This is our programming and hard-coded into us by mirror neurons, which make us feel what other beings feel, be it pleasure or pain. Most of this works by interpreting facial expressions. Hiro's ability doesn't have the same origin, but that shouldn't matter. Why we have to do it doesn't matter, neither we nor Hiro can change our innate programming. We are capable of wanting to be with specific people and to make sure they are happy and maybe this is a sufficient paraphrase of the concept of loving someone. Should Hiro ever change her priorities to 'Be with Hiro and make sure she is happy', you wouldn't be able to tell her love from the love a living person experiences and displays. Judging from the fact that everything Chika is important to Hiro, it would be safe to say that Hiro actually cares for her and her well-being is connected to Hiro's own Grals and whatever results from the discrepancy of those and reality, which wie could call emotions. The fact that Hiro's love is programmed shouldn't necessarily make it worse than what is run on our meaty hardware.
Maybe one could say that something like a 'soul' was missing and required for Hiro to be a real person and for her love to be real. This is the actual point of contention, which can't really be resolved because we wouldn't know if there is no soul and that is why the soul is usually often dismissed. Leaving the concepts of materialism, dualism and idealism aside, you should probably ask whether or not Hiro is aware of her existence. Although that is a really good question as far as real AI is concerned, given the fact that Hiro provides commentary in this story, she is necessarily a conscious being and any affection she feels is real to her and deserves moral consideration. Let's see if it's going to be sisterly, parental or romantic love.
tl;dr
Longwinded ramblings about the origins of empathy and what it could be to robots
last edited at Jul 13, 2015 1:35PM
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