"Tell me, how do I become like you? What will make me, human? How do I become a human?" he said, his life-like eyes bored into me as he said it.
A simple question, yet one so complicated and profound. How does one even begin to explain the concept of humanity?
"A human..." I say, contemplating the thought. "A human....is someone who feels, shows empathy...emotion. Yeah, that's it. Emotion." A concept so easy, yet dificult to explain to someone, or something that's never felt it before.
"Ruth, we already understand the concept of emotion. We even have our opinions, and you know very well we do our best to do you humans justice. We know emotion is happiness, sadness, joy, anger, envy, etc. Yet, it is also what makes you humans so flawed. But, I guess there is the sentiment that you humans do have a certain innovation that we robots do not. In all honesty, it's the only reason we keep you around. Now tell me, what about emotion makes people human?" He said it with a stern, dismissive tone, like it was something to just be done with and move on.
"Another thing about us humans, we value life." I argue. But the robot was silent, giving the same look as always. I'm telling them nothing new.
"Look, Ruth. These are all things we already know. You're an intellgent young lady, and there's no denying that. Your scores have shown as much. But we need something more....in depth. Extreme detail on just what it means to be humane." He seems almost irritated now.
"Tell me..." I say to him, a contemplative look on my face. "Have you ever gotten attatched to anything?"
The robot looks at me, suprised. "What does attatchment have to do with anything? We already value lives, animal, human, or plants, but what does attatchment have to do with anything? It's useless, it only causes pain and suffering. I don't see why you humans bother with it when it only causes pain and suffering. There are many other ways to find happiness." He says plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing.
"This is Eutopia. A place where humans and robots coincide. A place of no wars, no unnecessary death. Justice is always served without bias and we always make sure the punishment is fair. We allow your freedom of speech, we allow your art, unless it's crude and offensive, we allow your religions without any of the persecution, we allow you humans to do things yourselves. We have given you more freedom than this world has ever known."