Robots are typically seen as having no consciousness. But potentially they have the highest kind: equanimity. This is the emotion Buddhism counts as among the most sublime. The Buddha evidently described the equanimous mind as “abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill will.” My Roomba is certainly without hostility and ill will. Going about her daily rounds, she’s something like blithe—both self-contained and indifferent to human value systems. As for abundant, exalted, and immeasurable, I can’t be sure. How to measure these things, or is that what “immeasurable” means?
[Via]
