Ask Science
Ask a science question, get a science answer.
Community Rules
Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.
Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.
Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.
Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.
Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.
Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.
Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.
Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.
Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.
Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.
Rule 7: Report violations.
Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.
Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.
Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.
Rule 9: Source required for answers.
Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.
By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.
We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.
view the rest of the comments
No my point is that to look at a pet or a houseplant and ask if it is your property before you consider it potentially your responsibility to participate in caring for is insane and we only think this is a normal way of living because of how much being raised in capitalism fucks us up in our heads.
A pet or houseplant deserves to be treated well independent of any concept of ownership abstractly imposed upon it, the fact that we have wandered into thinking otherwise is terrifying and damning of our collective future.
I don't exactly disagree, but I suspect humans were domesticating plants and animals well before capitalism was a thing. Domesticated dogs for example are rather dependent on us and wouldn't survive well in the wild. Yes "property" and "ownership" are loaded terms but I think there can be some similar underlying truth in regards to our relationship with other things.
In some ways that can extend to nonliving objects or entities. If you create a piece of earthenware from nothing but clay and fire and your own hands, you own it and it's your property in a sense unrelated to capitalism. As in, you would not be happy if someone stole it or broke it or used it to commit a crime, and you would inherently consider your relationship to that object in your daily treatment of it and your reaction to those events.
And I'd say some of those aspects would extend to an AI or agent. Of course virtually all of the LLMs and other AI/ML models (to my knowledge) have been created within in a capitalistic society so as you point out they have all the additional baggage that comes with that. I'm just saying that's not 100% of their attributes. The way you treat something should also respect the labor and materials that went into it.
And that's actually a problem with many of these LLMs that were trained on the creative works of others, but that's crossing into a whole other topic...