if you think people having robots they can repeatedly physically assault and verbally abuse without consequence won't have an effect on their behavior towards others, you're fooling yourself. it would be fermenting anti-social behavior.
keep in mind i'm not assigning or assuming any sentience in robots, i'm talking about the human condition.
this is something quite different from potential sparing robot partners etc. this is just allowing people to be as malicious as they possibly can without restraint or consequence. who would want to be around an individual well practiced and comfortable with sadistic behavior?
when it's not enough and they need the robot to yell realistically in pain, sound more human while doing it etc...
society should be rooting out psychopathic tendencies, not fostering them.
I completely disagree with comparing this video to children hurting animals.
Empathy is a major component of labeling someone psychopathic/sociopathic. A child abusing animals is showing a lack of empathy because it’s a living thing. They don’t acknowledge it’s pain and suffering. There is no empathy involved in this situation however as a toy is an inanimate object. Attributing feelings/emotions to it is very often linked with autism
As for the behavior itself, that discussion seems to be getting away from the actual events here and pivoting toward a larger, much more extreme and specific circumstance. It’s like equating someone whos had a couple drinks in their life to an alcoholic. Of course in excess it can be problematic, but that goes for anything
Is this a regular thing? Are these folks doing the same thing to their pets or other people? Are they viciously attacking it? If someone is doing all that, then yeah it’s definitely concerning. This video isn’t any of that though