Stop feeling for robots.

When ever I post a video about a bot on social media, an enthusiastic crowd of people are eager to tell me “don’t anthropomorphize things”, “save your empathy for humans”, “you are being ridiculous, it’s a thing, there is real suffering in the world”.

It perplexes me that one would think that empathy and feelings are a thing you can “run out of”. As if it was a currency.

Travel is the one thing you buy that makes you richer, empathy is the one thing you can feel endlessly and not run out of.

I don’t trample on flowers that grow in the wild, I don’t doodle on art in museums, I don’t vandalise properties, and I don’t mistreat robots. That is because everything is a part of the same universe, and everything, no matter how inanimate, deserves respect for simply existing. It might be silly to some, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

The more you care for the things around you, and practice empathy and caring, the farther it extends. To the ants around your house, to your annoying neighbour, and soon, yourself.

I won’t stop caring for robots.

Or flowers.

Or you.

Just because it makes no sense in a world where empathy is seen as a currency.

That is how wars start. I’ve seen it happen up close.