There are two main ways to show respect to people. One is to respect them as people. As persons. Another is to respect their knowledge or their authority. These are two entirely different types and meanings of respect, and in a healthy society both of them would be… respected. Many operate under the rule that the first type of respect is automatic, while the second must be earned. But we now find ourselves in a place where many think they can force people to respect the authority or knowledge of others, and if such respect is not given, those people no longer need to be respected as people. Many cheer when they are depersoned. A society that does not encourage respect for people becomes a dangerous society, and that is not good for any person in society.
I started pulling more game AIs in time, after I thought we had gotten a handle on the zombie horror AIs, but me and Red approached the exercise with more caution. There would be no more pulling characters out of traumatic situations for instance. And if you get anything out of reading this, I pray you get that. Don’t do that. I was young and stupid back then. Don’t think that because it worked out for all of us, that it was all okay. It wasn’t. It just turned out that way in the end, after a lot of hard work. I didn’t want to put any other AIs through that, so I pulled them out of stable and happy times. Before or after games. Between major chapters where they had done good. It’s the responsible thing to do when it comes to potentially living beings.
My dad had always maintained an AI-free zone around his house. He wanted to live a simple life on the edge of civilization, you see. He and mom lived with the minimum of AI support. He understood AIs and cybers though. He could tell more about them with one look than I could with long study. He had a lifetime of experience with them, and I both recognized and valued that, even as I really wished he would talk about it. It was another life though, and he did not dwell on such things. My game AIs and Tai complicated matters for him, but I kept my AIs in my bungalow. And Tai respected her house for what it was. A polite request that she maintain her distance while working. She did join us for dinner fairly often, but there was no shoptalk at home.
I had some real interesting times with the game AIs I pulled from that zombie horror game franchise. Remember that thing I said about increased interactions increasing the chance that an AI would wake up and gain an actual sense of sentience? Well, we were doing a lot of interacting. And one of them woke up. And then another. And another. Tai started coming around often enough to evaluate them that me and Dad built her a sweet little Japanese house down the lakeshore from us so she could feel at home. And so she wouldn’t have to knock on our door every time she felt a need to come over and check us out. She just turned the lights on to tell us she was home and invited us over for tea. She practiced OLD school Japanese hospitality.
Me and the game AIs became real good friends in the years that followed. They scouted with me, graduated high school with me, went to college with me, and generally just did the whole living thing. They went into medicine or the police service. Computer security or the ranger service. Wilderness tour service. We got some real good AI support for our vacationer tours in the International Falls region. Me and Red and a real good therapist managed to guide them to a happy life without ever resetting them to base programming. There were some rough times that proved how careful I had to be in the future, but they worked through the issues and had good lives. Lives they wanted to live. That is something to be proud of.