In search for altruism

Does altruism exist?

It was really nice to read all the blogs on this website, but one topic that I am really interested in is altruism, which Nikki chose to write about [1]. Altruism, putting another's wellbeing and needs above one's own, is a feature that is distinct in creatures. What I find so interesting about altruism is whether it really exists, and if robots can be altruistic.

Nikki's creature Blink

In scientific research, the opinions are divided on the existence of altruism. When one argues that humans can be altruistic in a situation where, for example, a human gives their lunch to a homeless person (and does not expect anything in return), others argue that this behaviour is simply performed out of selfish reasons (feeling good about themselves having done a good deed), while others then counter that "feeling good" is only a side effect of altruism [2].

Therefore I think that ElliQ [3], X20 Quadruped Robot Dog [4] and Blink [1] are altruistic. ElliQ is completely selfless and cares about the health and wellbeing of their elder person, while X20 tirelessly saves lives and Blink provides unconditional support. These robots help in the area where humans lack and contribute to the greater good. However, as helpful as they are, this trait does not make them particularly "alive" or more "creature-like". This poses a question: "do you need to be "alive" to be altruistic?"

Mutual benefit

In plants, altruism exists mostly in the way of cooperation: both parties benefit (tree roots and fungi) [5].

Sharing is caring?

In animals, it is not sure whether true altruism exists or whether animals benefit others at their own cost for the purpose of survival.

Pseudo-altruistic theory vs. empathy-altruism theory

In humans, there are many theories regarding the existence of altruism [2].

However, for now I do not think that being alive is a prerequisite of altruism. I can imagine that in robots altruism can exist, as they do not have any needs of their own or gain social or personal benefits from selfishness. Humans are used to robots being altruistic towards them, as robots do whatever the human wants without (personal, maybe technological) limits. With that in mind, it would be interesting to create a robot that can teach humans to be altruistic. A robot teaching humans to be altruistic is altruism in itself, because the robot does not gain anything from it. Maybe to show this the robot could self-destruct or reset itself at the end of the learning session to explicitly show that it does not gain anything form it. Since this is quite a difficult task, I imagine something like this:

Meet Altrudy

An empty room, with just a table with a small sized robot on it. Visitors are only allowed to visit the room alone.

"This is Altrudy, the altruistic robot who is here to teach you about altruism.
No need to thank Altrudy, just enjoy."

It would be cool to see if visitors would just listen to Altrudy or maybe even try to fix Altrudy into not resetting. This would "help" the robot but the visitor would not gain anything from it, since after they leave the room, Altrudy would just restart the session, whether it has been fixed or not. Without other people around, the visitor has to come up with helping Altrudy themselves and they do not get praise for doing so because no one is around. It would be interesting to see how many people leave the room with increased altruism. However, it is hard to make the visitor not feel good about themself for helping Altrudy (and therefore not making it altruism but mutualism). This is something to think more deeply about.

References
[1] https://sites.google.com/view/artificialcreatures2024/student-portfolios/nikki-rademaker/simple-acts-of-machine-kindness
[2] Feigin, S., Owens, G., & Goodyear-Smith, F. (2014). Theories of human altruism: A systematic review. Annals of Neuroscience and Psychology, 1(1), 1-9.
[3] https://elliq.com/
[4] https://www.deeprobotics.cn/en/index/industry.html#part2
[5] https://phys.org/news/2019-05-symbiotic-relationships-trees-microbes-worldwide.html

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