Will we feel empathy?
Our technology is constantly evolving. We are currently nearing a time where our technology may be able to create artificial intelligence much like ourselves. Imagine a day when you wake up and there is a person living inside your computer screen (Larson). This person can think, feel, and fear. What do you do with them? If this were to happen, would people feel empathy for this person? Or instead would we turn off our computer and act like nothing ever happened?
Webster’s Dictionary defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also: the capacity for this” (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated). There is an old expression that states ‘walk a mile in their shoes,’ this is empathy. Empathy is the act of placing yourself in another person’s situation.
At first I thought empathy was being able to feel for someone because you can, in some way, relate to them. In this way, empathy was just a deeper level of sympathy. With this very basic definition of empathy my first reaction was that humans would not feel empathy for the little person living in their computer screen. We would not feel empathy because we cannot relate. We would label this person as ‘other’ or different from us, therefore blocking our empathetic feelings. However, there is something else humans feel called empathic concern.
Empathic concern seems to be a product of “(a) perception of another as in need and (b) intrinsic valuing of that other’s welfare. Contrary to what is often thought, empathic concern is not a product of perceived similarity of the other to the self. We do not simply feel for ourselves in the other. We can feel empathic concern for a wide range of others in need, even dissimilar others, as long as we value their welfare” (Batson). According to this new definition, humans can feel empathy for something we cannot relate to or that is not like us. The new question becomes will we value their welfare?
I would like to say I can answer this question with a firm “yes” but the harsh reality is I cannot. History has shown that we have not valued the welfare of many humans. Human nature is to label people as ‘other’ creating them as less than human in our minds. This makes their welfare not as important as ‘ours’ and the people like ‘us’. We do this with humans who came into the world just like we did. Now add in the debate about if the person living in your computer screen is really alive. If we cannot care for the welfare of our own people, we will not be able to care for the welfare of a person living in our computer screens. Dr. Seuss once said, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” Although I desperately want to agree with him, I think society will have a different view upon this tiny person.
Bibliography
Batson, Dan. "Empathic Concern and Altruism in Humans." 12 10 2009. On the Human. 1 12 2011.
Larson, Robert. Media Literacy Class 28 11 2011.
Larson, Robert. Media Literacy Class 30 11 2011.
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Empathy - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictonary. 2011. 1 12 2011.
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