So purples are exceptionally well programmed robots. Got it.
Did you ever study literature when you were in school, anonymous friend?
Literature is one of my primary areas of expertise, so as you can imagine, I have quite a few opinions about its importance. I would argue that the primary purpose of literature, whether it is approached as an instructional tool or as a source of entertainment, is to allow the reader to vicariously gain new experiences through the text. These experiences are then added to our memories, and we draw on them when making decisions, just as we draw on our own memories and experiences. I would argue that although very few of us will have professions which relate directly to literary theory or analysis, the basic activity and the fundamental skills involved are extremely important for almost everyone. They offer us additional familiarity with the world around us, and expose us to new conflicts, questions, and decisions within the safety of an imagined environment.
We could, of course, try to gain similar experiences by actually doing new things. Unfortunately, this is much more difficult and time-consuming, is sometimes dangerous, and limits us to experiences which are already possible. It leaves us unprepared for the future. More than that, it does not allow us the experience of empathizing with another–of placing ourselves in another perspective, so that we might form a model of what the people around us are likely to be motivated by and concerned with.
Have you ever stopped to think about how incredible this ability is? How awe-inspiring it is that I can create a series of particular symbols, that you can read those symbols and translate them into sounds, that you can then translate those sounds into meanings, that you can combine those meanings to form a narrative, that you can consume the narrative and add it to your own life experiences, and that you can then use the perspective gained, whether you agree with it or not, to better predict events that will happen in the real world, and which might not even be limited to my own behavior?
All of my students can do this. All but the most horrifically disabled Amentans can do this.
Robots cannot do this. They translate, yes, but understanding is beyond them, let alone using that understanding to create relevant predictions.
Robots are our best attempt at creating a being which can replace us. They have done a fine job, in some limited cases. Our modern factories are certainly an improvement on the non-mechanized workhouses that one saw perhaps one hundred and fifty years ago. In other instances, they have failed utterly. There is no robot that can do an acceptable job of cutting your hair to your specifications. There is no robot that can cook the meals you wish to eat at restaurants. There is no robot that can vacuum the floors of a daycare without mindlessly removing small toys along with crumbs. I daresay there is no robot that can successfully and consistently hold twenty minutes of moderately thoughtful and pleasant conversation.
The vast majority of purples work in environments that are far less controlled than my classroom. They are constantly required to adapt to new situations and respond to unfamiliar demands. Even a purple who works in retail needs to be able to respond to customer requests and complaints in a sensible manner, a task which is entirely beyond computers because it requires so much adaptability.
If purple children were robots, I would need to prepare them for each of these situations individually. I would need to prepare them for the old customer who was very sure that the sale was today and not yesterday, for the young customer who insists that they be allowed to return a ruined outfit, for the customer who demands that they be offered information which no one around has access to, and for every possible way that a register or electronic scale might malfunction. I would need to teach them the precise words that they ought to say in every situation, no matter what happened. As soon as they reached an unfamiliar situation, they would be incapable of dealing with it in a sensible manner.
I don’t do this. I teach them a few general principles, a few particularly useful skills, and then I trust that they are capable of using those skills to seek out additional knowledge and adapt to the particular demands of their professional and personal lives. They do this. Some do it better than others, but all of them do it far better than even the finest robot. I know they can do it, because every day I watch them respond to imagined situations which they have never encountered before, then watch them create compositions which are unlike any composition that anyone else has ever created in the history of the world–and which are, at the same time, coherent enough that I can understand them and respond in turn.
I would be fascinated to see you create a robot which is capable of even the most basic types of literary analysis. In fact, I would be very impressed if you could create a robotic server that could navigate a restaurant without running into tables and spilling hot food everywhere. I am sure the same is true of the rest of the world. If you’ve made some sort of breakthrough in a similar area, then please, don’t keep us waiting.
