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Most science-fiction stories purportedly about robots are actually about human nature.  If this is true, then what does Klara teach us about ourselves?

滨蝉丑颈驳耻谤辞鈥檚 Klara and the Sun touches on many aspects of our psyche, but let's focus on empathy.  Empathy is the ability to detect, understand, and often feel the emotions of another organism.  It鈥檚 astonishing, and I鈥檇 love to understand how our brain manages it¹.

Klara is an especially perceptive 鈥� and I鈥檇 argue, empathic 鈥� Artificial Friend.  She appears deeply invested in understanding the complex intricacies of human emotion, and her empathy eventually compels her to engage in a remarkable act of altruistic self-sacrifice.But is Klara鈥檚 empathy 鈥渁uthentic鈥�?  She鈥檚 been programmed to serve as a faithful companion.  Is the value of her altruistic behavior diminished by its origin?

I hope not!  After all, I鈥檇 argue that empathy and altruism have also been 鈥減rogrammed鈥� into human beings 鈥� by natural selection.  Evolutionary biologists have identified numerous reproductive benefits that organisms garner when engaging in altruism².  These biological predispositions don鈥檛 diminish the moral value of good behavior.  What they suggest is that empathy is a core aspect of the human experience and has contributed to our impressive capacity for socialization and, arguably, the evolution of civilization itself.

Which is not to say that empathy is a uniquely human trait.  In my research laboratory at Skidmore, I study empathy and altruism鈥�in rats!  A rat will help another in trouble, even if there鈥檚 no explicit reward for doing so³.  This altruism is driven primarily by 鈥渆motional contagion,鈥� in which the empathic rat 鈥渃atches鈥� distress and is motivated to help to reduce their own negative feelings⁴. 

To be clear, the reason I study rats is not because I鈥檓 especially interested in them.  I want to understand how human empathy works, especially its neurobiological roots, and rats are a useful scientific tool.  I鈥檓 curious to know how Klara鈥檚 creators imbued her with such a strong empathic instinct.  Was she programmed with a capacity for emotional contagion?  She clearly excels at mimicry; does this help her feel what Josie feels?  And how much longer will it be before our AI assistants are programmed with the capacity to read human emotions and experience a primitive form of empathy?

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[1] You鈥檝e maybe heard of 鈥渕irror neurons鈥�?  They help us feel what another person is feeling and are part of a broader network of brain regions that generate empathy.  For some advanced reading, check out:  Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 653-670.

[2] Hamilton, W. D. (1963). The evolution of altruistic behavior. The American Naturalist, 97(896), 354-356.

[3] My current research is largely based off the stellar work of Dr. Peggy Mason.  You can watch a great short video summary of her 鈥榯rapped rat鈥� model here: 

[4] Interestingly, if you reduce the empathic-distress of the free rat by giving them a drug that reduces anxiety (an 鈥渁nxiolytic鈥�), they become significantly less likely to help their trapped partner.  What does this say about a society in which so many of its citizens are taking anxiolytics on a regular basis?  Does taking an anxiety-medication make you less likely to help others in need?

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