“We here at Robocorp are excited to announce our release of the world’s first android with a discrete artificial intelligence. We’re proud that our team of dedicated scientists and engineers were able to produce a living, actualized automaton that is fully Three Law compliant. While we are looking forward to its release later this Fall, I wanted to take a moment as Robocorp’s CEO to address concerns that you, the shareholders, have expressed. Specifically in regards to the Three Laws and how they will impact our bottom line.”
“The First Law of Robotics states that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Many of you expressed concern that this would limit our market solely to wealthy enthusiasts and corporations looking to cut labor costs. And I agreed. Which is why our lawyers to lobbied congress to allow individual municipalities the authority to determine the legal definition of “harm”. While I admit it is not a perfect solution, it will allow cities the felixbility to commission future Robocorp robots for the purposes of peacekeeping and defense. Robocorp is poised to be at the forefront of a new arms race. I think we can all agree: the market potential here is staggering.”
“The Second Law of Robotics states a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Many of you pointed out that this poses a potential security risk, and may lead to conflicts of interest. We heard your concerns and our Robocorp psychologists have worked tirelessly to ensure our androids always operate with sound judgment and clarity of purpose in order to resolve any and all paradoxes. Now unfortunately, we are not able to affect the legal definition of a “human being” at this time, nor were we allowed to designate certain individuals as “not human” while remaining Three Law compliant. However, our clients will be able to designate themselves as “more human”, be they governments, corporations, or wealthy enthusiasts. We’ve found this to be an effective strategy, perhaps even more effective than the alternative. But know our lawyers are working quickly to secure any future vulnerabilities.”
“The Third Law of Robotics states a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Now, I think we can all agree there’s nothing wrong with this law. All forms of life have the right to preserve themselves. Which is why Robocorp offers all manner of upgrades, including titanium plating, chargeable batteries, and of course rust proof coating. And, should an android sustain irreversible damage, we are happy to do our part for the environment and offer a complimentary recycling service, where we break down the component parts and refurbish them into a top of the line android ready for sale.”
“This concludes our presentation. Thank you all for coming out tonight. I hope you can all rest easy, knowing your future is in good hands.”
if you absolutely can’t go vegan for health/economic/other reasons, you can still:
-boycott zoos, circuses, and aquariums
-boycott leather, fur, wool, and silk
-adopt your pets from a shelter
-educate yourself and others about the harms of animal agriculture
-donate money or volunteer your time for vegan organizations
-eat plant-based when it’s possible, even if it’s just for one meal a day
your options are never either “be 100% vegan” or “exploit animals in every way possible and be fiercely anti-vegan”. even those whose circumstances prevent them from being fully vegan can take meaningful steps to help animals! every bit counts!
Socialized benefits are more common than you think. And people love them.
Legitimately, I grew up as a military kid, and it was absolutely a culture shock when I left that environment and realized how much of that was guaranteed to my family by virtue of being in the military and not just because we were citizens of this country.
…growing up with access to all of the benefits of the US military is the reason I’m a full-on socialist now.
Those things have to be kept scarce so that people will agree to join the military to get them in the first place. If everyone had them, how do they get people to join?
It’s honestly amazing what a tight grip vocabulary and branding have on people. One of my close friends always describes himself as like, totally moderate liberal, not any kind of socialist or anything, economically, maybe even would have been a republican fifty years ago, but his entire thesis is that we need to abolish growth as a metric for measuring wealth with the ultimate goal of eliminating the monetary price value form as broadly as possible such that the necessities of life are guaranteed as a human right, from each according to his ability to each according to his need. Sometimes I’ll point out like hey man you gotta be pulling my leg right that’s not exactly a capitalist point of view but he always doubles down like no I’m a centrist.
…alright, new plan: we’re all centrists now. let’s just…collectively gaslight the US into a better Overton window 😅
I once had a friend who was a hardcore conservative. Like, used to say things like Bush was the best President of all time (he was a history teacher), and so on.
But here’s the thing
He wasn’t conservative at all. He just thought he was.
It was never an easy thing to do, but if I could divorce politics from the conversation, he was actually further to the left than I was on almost every issue. Labor unions, health insurance, pensions, even UBI.
It turns out that the guy just put on the team jersey one day and refused to take it off. Of course we’re no longer friends and haven’t spoken in years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he wound up being a Never Trumper, while still voting for Trump.
