Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 4176-4180 (13th - 17th, January 2020)
shanejayell:
I think the issue is less "should May have a body" than "should May not have a body that meets basic requirements for Life, Liberty etc etc?"
Her body is so defective that if she's out and forgets her charge cable, she's hosed. Basically.
Carl-E:
I'm also wondering (and I didn't notice if this had been mentioned) whether May is having to pay off her incarceration expenses - I imagine Robot Prison may well be contracted out by the government to a private for-profit server farm where inmates are charged for their incarceration, and have to pay it off in some way upon release.
Not to mention the fact that if the fighter jet was damaged in her attempt at taking it for herself, she's have to pay for those damages as well.
Payments like this usually mean having your wages garnished at some reasonable sounding (but still hardship inducing) percentage, and having a substandard body that needs constant attention and repairs you can't afford will certainly eat into that earning potential. If her hours are reduced because her face got torn half off, or her leg won't stay on so she can stand at a counter and push a broom, that garnishment probably won't change without court action, leaving her even deeper in debt.
Basically, the conditions of her parole may require a better body (or at least a repair plan) that's not being supplied. We don't know all the details, but I'm sure Roko does, and she's willing to fight for a fair shake for an AI with a coarse personality and bad impulse control.
Which means the conditions of May's probation are really untenable. And the lack of a budget at the state/federal level really doesn't allow you to violate human/AI rights.
Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, though.
Is it cold in here?:
Hmm!
Jeph could have illustrated the point with a human ex-con. One natural way to introduce one would have been to have one of the more compassionate characters writing to a prison pen pal whose story got followed after release.
Would that have been better? Or would it have been like taking a portrait photo in noon sunlight and perfect focus? There's such a thing as being too direct and on point.
I keep being tempted to talk about the situation in our world for humans but that belongs in the DISCUSS threads about prisons and criminal justice reform. If Jeph gets some of his audience researching that area, it will have been a good deed.
The approach he took focuses attention on questions that only exist in the QC world.
Gyrre:
Thank you shanejayell and Is It Cold In Here? For pointing out the basic rights guaranteed by our Constitution and the pre-existing thread about reforming the U.S. prison system over in DISCUSS.
Is it cold in here?:
I wonder why the QC world doesn't have a charity yet for the purpose. It could be like Dress for Success, which gives away interview clothes to released prisoners referred to them by social service agencies.
We haven't seen Momo in a while. This might be a project for her. She could talk AIs who are getting upgrades into donating their previous bodies to charity.
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