Quotes About Ethics

Unless under the spell of a psychotic delusion, extreme rage, inescapable deprivation, drugs, or a destructive authority figure, a person who is conscience-bound does not—in some sense he cannot—kill or rape in cold blood, torture another person, steal someone's life savings, trick someone into a loveless relationship as sport, or willfully abandon his own child. Could you?

Imagine—if you can—not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members.

There is simply no known way to create a conscience in an individual who does not have one.

Surprisingly, even twenty-first-century society relies rather heavily on the honor system, and when we encounter an individual who simply is not bound by honor, conscience, or connection, we may find ourselves in big trouble.

A substantial proportion of people will do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority." Milgram believed that authority could put conscience to sleep because the obedient person makes an "adjustment of thought," which is to see himself as not responsible for his own actions.

The sociopath sees all laws and expectations as games to be played.

A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority.

To admit that some people literally have no conscience is not technically the same as saying that some human beings are evil, but it is disturbingly close. And good people want very much not to believe in the personification of evil.

We feel that if someone is bad, he should be burdened with the knowledge that he is bad. It seems to us the ultimate injustice that a person could be evil, by our assessment , and still feel fine about himself.

But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don't tell people that. Yes, everyone does know it.

Iris: "Peri, you can't bomb the colony." Perihelion: "You are incorrect, Iris, I can bomb the colony.

I yelled, "No!" which I'm not supposed to do; I'm always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they're about to accidentally commit suicide.

I'd hacked my governor module and kept doing my job because I didn't know what else to do (except you know, a murderous rampage, but murderous rampages are overrated and interfere with one's ability to keep watching media)

Fucking up a planet, even part of a planet, for no reason was kind of a big deal, and I was surprised they had gotten away with it. Okay, no, I wasn't surprised.

It's one thing to poke a murderbot with a governor module; poking a rogue murderbot is a whole different proposition.

They don't give murderbots decent education modules on anything except murdering, even those are cheap versions.

As a SecUnit, a large part of my function was helping the company record everything my clients did and said so the company could data mine it and sell anything worthwhile. (They say good security comes at a price and the company takes that literally.)

His biggest rule was that you didn't involve anyone who wasn't already playing the game. Or, as he phrased it, if you have to kill innocent bystanders, then your planning is at fault and someone should best eliminate you.

You know, if you don't want to be manually eviscerated with your own energy weapon then maybe you shouldn't go around killing research transports and antagonizing rogue SecUnits.

Nobody was touching my humans. To make sure of that I had to kill these two rogue Units. I could have pulled out at this point, sabotaged the hoppers, and got my humans out of there, leaving the rogue Units stuck on the other side of an ocean; that would have been the smart thing to do.

But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don't tell people that. Yes, everyone does know it. No, there's nothing you can do about it.

the humans on the Station wouldn't have to think about what I was, a construct made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety, depression, and unfocused rage, a killing machine for whichever humans rented me, until I made a mistake and got my brain destroyed by my governor module.

We're not murderers, Tremaine. We're killers. There's a difference. A small difference, but a difference nonetheless.

ART had an alternate, more drastic plan that included giving me sex-related parts, and I told it that was absolutely not an option. I didn't have any parts related to sex and I liked it that way. I had seen humans have sex on the entertainment feed and on my contracts, when I had been required to record everything the clients said and did. No, thank you, no. No.