I have the picture to my right as wallpaper on my cell phone right now.

It’s interesting to pause and reflect on it for a minute. The picture clearly depicts a little robot, dancing together with a little child in very playful fashion. The robot, for all its mechanical exterior, seems happy; and the child is happily playing with it. There seems to be a genuine bond of friendship between them.

To a parent, the picture seems more frightening. What is the robot doing? Why does it look so scary? Can I trust the robot with my child? How do I know the robot is benevolent, and that it will not, the moment I turn around, attack my child and hurt it? The looks of the robot even seem frightening. Although it seems to get happily along with the child… who knows what it can do?

The picture, in a way, seems to highlight the difference between childhood and adulthood. Why is it that children are so naive and trusting, whereas grownups are so much more eager to distrust and shy away from what they do not understand? The child in this picture no doubt has observed how different it looks, but quickly sees beyond that, deeper down to the “personality” of the robot. She has quickly learned to trust the robot, sensing the deeper qualities within.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Why are we adults so obsessed with exterior looks? Why do we glance quickly at something, and in that flash of an instant, determine that it’s either good or bad (or neutral = uninteresting), and act accordingly? How often do we not treat people in the same way? An rugged person on the street – quickly judged as an alcoholic and troublemaker; when perhaps it might turn out to be the most delightfully kind and loving person, if only we took the trouble of seeing beneath the unpolished surface.

In a lesser sense, what does the robot think? Does it think at all? Does it have emotions, or is its programming of such character that it simply enjoys fulfilling its basic function? Perhaps it follows the Three Laws. Perhaps it – like R. Giskard Reventlov – is enormously complex and sensitive, a remarkable intelligence hidden behind a foul exterior, that simply delights in being a playful friend of a little child. How angelic in character! Or if it possesses a will of its own, does it ever think about gaining selfish advantage? Playing a part until it can subdue the humans and establish a rule and justice of its own? What does a robot want? And how can we judge the character of a machine without a deep, innate understanding of its inner workings?

In the end, I suppose the cynical nature of adults – if it is right to call it that – is a warranted safety feature. To navigate in a world of six billion, with our time constantly being filled with advertising of every form, takes a certain natural skepticism. It is not then very strange that we’ve turned into jaded, cynical people who have learned to judge and discriminate in a second or two.

But for now, it is nice to ponder this image of a child, so naturally trusting and open, play with a little electromechanical machine. Maybe, for a moment, we might do well to forget about our busy day and do the same.