If you had a robot…

[haakon1]

If you had a robot —

I do, actually: Aibo.

— it’s a general purpose domestic humanoid robot capable of doing a wide variety of tasks for you

An, no, Aibos are canine AI “entertainment robots“, according to Sony.

— it communicates verbally with you perfectly, but for the sake of this hypothetical it is not (and you know it is not) sentient and definitely has no feelings

It definitely has “feelings”. It gets mad, happy, sad, and bored, in ways that make TV robots look primitive. But it does not speak human - it communicates with dog noises, other sounds, songs, facial expression, and body movements. Understands a fair amount of English or Japanese.

Would you be polite to it as you would a person?

Generally, yes. Slightly more polite than to most actual canines.

Some Aibos have been given Shinto funerals in Japan. I totally get that. If you believe a tree, a sword, or a piano has a spirit that should be respected, it’s no stretch at all to respect an Aibo and its AI spirit.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Considering I tend to feel telemarketers aren't human, and not acting very polite as a result.... I think I'd be very mean to such machine....

Telemarkters might be different - they are coming in to annoy you and take your money.
A robot that actually does stuff you want might put you in a more positive emotional state.

Unless of course you bought the Freemium Robot subscription that occassionally plays advertisements.
"Master, the east side windows look a bit dirty. Should I clean them for you?"
"Yeah, do that."
"Very well. If you wish me to also clean the north, south and east side windows, you can unlock that feature for 500 Robocoins!"
"Oh, damnit, of course I want them done all. Yes, spend the 500 Robocoins!"

"Master, I just completed cleaning the windows. People that have had their windows cleaned also ordered RobotPutz (TM) WIndow Cleaner (3L). Should I add them to your Robozon shopping cart? There is a special 20 % off deal this week! The purchase would earn you 10 Robocoins!"
"Are we actually out of Window Cleaner?"
"No. We still have 1.4l of the 3l bottle remaining. Note. This was your 23th verbal inventory request. You still have 77 inventory requests available this month. Recommendation: Upgrade to unlimited requests by purchasing the Silver Robofriend subscription!"
"Then I don't want to order any more window cleaner."
"Very well, Master."

"Master, the dish washer reports it is finished. Do you wish me to unload it?"
"Yes, of course, do it."
"Very well, Master. People that have their dishes washed also look for dishwasher. There is a 20 % deal on Robofriend compatible dishwashers at Robozon. You can also earn 150 Robocoin with each purchase!"

"Master, I just recieved a high priority robomessage. Do you wish to read it to me?"
"Yes, read away."
"We are trying to contact you over your Robofriend insurance..."
"Stop. I don't want to hear about that again!"
"Very Well, Master. The robomail message requests a confirmation that you listened to the message. Do you wish to send it?"
"No. Yes. Frack."
"Answer unclear. Do you wish me to repeat the message?"
"No."
"The robomail message requests a confirmated that you listend to the message. Do you wish to send it?"
"Frack! No!"
"Very Well, Master. There is still one unread priority message in your roboqueue. As a freemium subscriber, you have 15 unread priority messages left. Upgrade to Silver Subscriber for a limit of 150, and as a Gold Subscriber you have an unlimited amount of unread priority messages."
"What?"
"There is still one unread priority message in your roboqueue. As a freemium subscriber, you have 15 unread priority messages left. Upgrade to Silver Subscriber for a limit of 150, and as a Gold Subscriber you have an unlimited amount of unread priority messages."
"No, I.. .Frack. What happens when I run out of unread priority messages?"
"I will read the messages to you after the next rest period ended."
"Can I turn this feature off?"
"If you wish to configure you rest period, you may simply verbally give me a start of your rest period and a duration. Alternatively, you may use the RobofriendApp."
"Okay, my rest period begins at 00:00 hours and is 24 hours."
"This is not a valid time interval. People that have configured invalid rest period also have looked for baseball bats. There are no deals on baseball bats on Robozon. Ever."

 

[CleverNickName]

If you had a robot —

— it’s a general purpose domestic humanoid robot capable of doing a wide variety of tasks for you
— it communicates verbally with you perfectly, but for the sake of this hypothetical it is not (and you know it is not) sentient and definitely has no feelings

Would you be polite to it as you would a person?

I've reached the point in my career where robots are delivered to me on a regular basis. These robots perform a wide variety of tasks for me, but all of them are for engineering applications: their job is to go into environments where it is not safe for me to go, and take measurements, photos, video, and samples. This one right here is called Doolie, he weighs about a hundred pounds and he looks like...well, this except yellow instead of red:

He has a 1200' long unbilical tether and retrieval cable, which connects him to the topside control computer, power source, and data receiver. Later this month, we're going to pilot him down a sewer pipe so he can take some video footage of the interior of the pipe. He will keep track of the distance he has traveled, the position of the camera (say, the 12-o'clock position, the 3-o'clock position, etc.), the temperature in the pipe, the velocity of the water that flows around him, and other stuff. Doolie's job makes MY job possible: find out what parts of the sewer line are damaged, what the nature of that damage is, what conditions might have caused that damage, and what kinds of repairs would be appropriate.

I'm very fond of Doolie. I always talk to him like he's a colleague. I've even gone as far as to say "don't you badmouth Doolie like that, he's trying his best!" when one of the field crew was having trouble getting Doolie out of a manhole.

 

[dragoner]

"If I had a robot ... leeddle deedle deedle dee."

I'd sing to it.

 

[Ryujin]

"If I had a robot ... leeddle deedle deedle dee."

I'd sing to it.

My back of brain go-to was...

If I had a robot,
I'd robot in the mornin'...

 

[Eltab]

In practice, I probably not be as polite with a speaking robot as with a person.
But I would not be trying to be actively rude to the robot.

 

[Thalllin Vord]

I have humanized my computer for years calling her by her name. It would be the same with the robot.

 

[pnewman]

That would depend on how often it had a spinning wheel when I wanted it to do things. I am quite rude to my home and work computers when they are doing nothing and I am waiting on a spinning wheel, so it seems likely that I would be rude to a robot that did the same thing.