Social capabilities across human development | Part 17
Rules support shared life. Defining social capability as obedience to every rule, however, leaves out judgments about rules that need changing and unjust requests. Consider a rule's purpose, people's rights, and authority to change it separately.
One person gathers the shared paints
Three children are painting in a classroom. One gathers the communal paints in front of themselves, leaving the others unable to use them. The children explain the problem and, with their teacher, discuss accessible placement and a turn-taking arrangement.
This is fictional. The point is not simply following a teacher's voice, but considering why sharing is needed. Changing the order of use differs from taking away someone else's opportunity.
Research on developing norm judgments
Studies of children's norm judgments sometimes distinguish moral and conventional norms in their tasks. See The ontogeny of intent-based normative judgments. This helps avoid treating an agreed game procedure and harm to another person as interchangeable violations.
Cross-society research examines shared and culturally differing aspects of children's enforcement of conventional norms. See Children across societies enforce conventional norms. One culture's way of communicating a rule should not become the sole correct expression of social capability.
These are studies of bounded experimental tasks, not proof of the legitimacy of every classroom or workplace rule. This article uses their distinctions to analyze a scene.
Understanding roles includes understanding limits of authority
Children experience responsibilities in games and classrooms; later roles include work and community obligations. A role involves carrying out assigned tasks and knowing which decisions require consultation.
Participants may negotiate turns with the paints, but cannot create permission to destroy someone else's work. At work, changing a task sequence differs from changing conditions for sharing personal information. A role should not imply unlimited authority.
Questioning a rule can involve explaining its effects and using a change procedure. Social behavior includes consultation rather than only a choice between obedience and violation.
A design hypothesis for physical AI
A possible design records rule content, applicable situations, decision makers, exception conditions, and change authority. "It's okay" from a nearby person should not change a rule before their authority is checked.
A language model may help explain or clarify reasons, without lifting prohibitions merely through conversational flow. Conflicting rules require an appropriate handoff rather than executing an improvised priority order.
Evaluation could include ordinary instructions, valid exceptions, unauthorized exception requests, and rule revision or revocation. The proposal examines prevention of unauthorized changes alongside instruction-following rates.
A decision in four panels
- Children use communal paints.
- The paints gather with one child and become inaccessible to others.
- They explain the difficulty and consult the teacher.
- Shared placement lets everyone continue.
This fictional comic depicts checking the purpose of sharing rather than obedience through punishment.
References
- The ontogeny of intent-based normative judgments
- Children across societies enforce conventional norms
About this series
This series uses published literature to examine everyday situations. Its 7 domains and 22 capabilities are an editorial framework, not a standard academic classification. Differences in age or culture are not rankings of people's social worth or capability. The proposed AI designs do not establish humanlike emotional experience or demonstrated product performance. The comics illustrate fictional examples.
LOGIHEART's research and development vision
LOGIHEART is researching how to implement social capabilities in physical AI that interacts with people.
Explore the research and development vision at the LOGIHEART website and in the English introduction video.
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