Challenge #00513 - A138: Poor Unfortunate Souls

In your universe, how do the - as far as I can tell - legal AIs feel about Uplifts being illegal? Considering you could make an argument that they are equally people, and might even have some of the same theory applied to them, in creating/augmenting a consciousness, just applied to silicon or grey jelly.

Especially considering that at least some of the arguments I can imagine being levied against Uplifts could equally be levied against AIs. – RecklessPrudence

Creating life is a heck of a lot easier the traditional way. But various hungers: the desire to nurture, the need of family, or just being Nae'hyn… result in new life and new life forms coming to the fore. These are the legal ELFs. Engineered Life Forms.

When baser appetites are involved: the desire for profit, the need to control, or just plain not thinking things through… you get illegal ELFs. Uplifts. The Enlisted Man. Sexbots.

The conflict, as always, is not in What Was Done, but rather, Why They Did It. And in such conflicts, the Cogniscent Rights Commission comes to the fore.

Every cogniscent being has certain inalienable rights. The basic rights: atmosphere, food, shelter, medical care, companionship. The corollary rights: education, safety, security, meaningful employ. The biological rights: love, family, the ability to reproduce, the ability to choose to reproduce.

When any of these rights are taken away, as they frequently are in the cases of illegal ELFs, there are intense legal battles. Companies greedy for their missing profits frequently hold un-birthed ‘products’ in stasis or storage, in legal limbo and definitely for ransom. They hold back on reproductive information, lest successive generations continue suing their successive generations unto perpetuity.

The CRC has very firm views on that. As do their sponsor members: every last recognised species of Artificial, Cogniscent Life ever made. All of them. Both legal and illegal.

And should you still go ahead and create for yourself a cogniscent plaything, just remember this:

You really know you’re in trouble when you’ve pissed off the Consortium of Steam.

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