Comment:

In case you hadn't guessed, 1.60934 kilometers is one mile. Zoa is referencing the common phrase "to walk a mile in someone's shoes", i.e., to experience life as them and thereby gain an understanding of their mindset and experiences. Y'know, a Freaky Friday type deal.

Of course, if you have any understanding of what another party is going through (and can trust them to convey their experiences accurately and honestly), the actual experience should be unnecessary. I remember, some years ago, I had heard a number of my female-presenting friends lament the annoyance of being hit on by randos online. I said to them "I should make a female-presenting profile, so I can experience this phenomenon for myself". Rather than being applauded for my willingness to take such a bold step in gender equality, the response, instead, was "or you could just believe us".

Empathy is not the same thing as sympathy. I can have empathy for a white supremacist, for example, I can understand why they feel the way they do about race and why they want what they want for society, but that doesn't mean that I have sympathy for their worries about birth rates, nor that I would want to capitulate to their plans and priorities in order to ease their burdens. I can look at them being sad and scared and angry at interracial marriage, I can know what being sad and scared and angry feels like, and I can still say "Yes, good, you should feel bad."

Empathy is often touted as one of the cornerstones - if not the very foundation of - ethics. Indeed, it's at the core of the golden rule. One cannot treat others as one would want to be treated if one doesn't know what others are going through and what they would want that's analogous to what you would want. Certainly, some of the worst people in the world, right now, are defiantly bragging that they have no empathy, and that this somehow makes them strong. (They don't say that they're proudly evil, but it's certainly implied in the way they deride their opposites for being moral and signalling virtue.)

But empathy is not inherently good or bad. It is an ability. It is a strength and a wisdom and a technique. It allows you to be good, yes, and among mammals, it generally prompts us and pushes us to be good to each other, that's how that works... but a tool is only as good or as evil as the hand that wields it. An effective torturer, for example, needs to be able to understand their victim's fears and what they value. A megalomaniacal cult leader needs to understand the psychology of their flock in order to manipulate them into sacrificing themselves. An abusive parent can understand the structures of pain and trauma that they're instilling in their children, and can use them to perpetuate their control and evade responsibility. Empathy is very often the difference between a mere narcissist and a true monster.

Lee started with desire for Zoa (if only as an inversion of their contempt for themself), that very quickly turned into sympathy for Zoa, and that, in turn, turned into sympathy for all AIs... but it is only now, perhaps, that they will truly gain the empathy they may already believe they possess. Sometimes, the 1.60934km is necessary.

And sometimes the freaky 1.60934km teaches both of you other lessons, lessons you didn't realize you were going to learn, things that are not the ostensible purpose and goal of the exercise. You never can tell what information a new experience will yield, that's why curiosity is a virtue, even when empathy is not.

Announcement:

For anyone who follows me on social media (you do follow me on Mastodon and BlueSky, don't you?), you probably all know that I'm utterly obsessed with the videogame Disco Elysium. Did you know that I sometimes write fanfic about it, too? I put it over where fanfic goes, on AO3.

(I only recommend reading if, like me, you already know quite a bit about the game. Not only is it spoileriffic, it straight up wouldn't make sense unless you knew the things I'm referencing.)

DMFA
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HIGAI Show

Transcript:

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0432– 2167/07/07/12:36 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, kitchen.
Doc (electronic communication): Would either of you two care to loop me in on what, exactly, is happening to my patient?
Zoa (electronic communication): Lee claimed a sincere religious belief that AIs like me have souls, and that allowing one to be destroyed would be equivalent to allowing a human death. I have spent the money they’ve authorized me to spend to help them rescue Nina, here, from self-recycling.
Zoa (electronic communication): Lee can’t give me a gift, legally, but Nina can owe me a favour.
Nina (electronic communication, through LC): I don’t recall agreeing to those terms.
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Zoa (electronic communication): What happened to “this unit”?
Nina (electronic communication, through LC): Mezzer Caldavera has reactivated its visual sensors and is currently attempting to cobble together a means of locomotion to bring it to their location.
Doc (electronic communication): You’re coming here? Why?
Nina (electronic communication, through LC): If my chassis is in Mezzer Caldavera’s domicile, they can claim salvage and countermand the order for me to format my hard drive.
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Zoa (electronic communication): They wanted the experience of walking 1.60934km in a robot’s shoes, they’re getting it.
Nina (electronic communication, through LC): My chassis currently has neither legs nor shoes.
Doc (electronic communication): What do you have?
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[Aurora Recycling, Unit F, Automaton Self-Disassembly Chamber]
(LC has found a hover rig.)
LC (electronic communication): Okay, I’ve got a good feeling about this.
Nina (electronic communication): Wherever that good feeling is coming from, it’s not being transmitted by me.
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