Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT 4176-4180 (13th - 17th, January 2020)
BenRG:
You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that Roko is literally the first person at the advocacy group who has actually had the drive to achieve anything much at all. If that is the case, then I suspect that everyone else at the office will be overjoyed to have her 'take charge'. She's likely going to find herself being promoted to boss without knowing it.
"Who's in charge here?"
"Um... That would be me, I guess?"
notsocool:
--- Quote from: Penquin47 on 15 Jan 2020, 22:34 ---May is not allowed to rent out processor time. It's not exactly a hard jump to think she wouldn't be allowed back into anything resembling finance, or that requires security clearance. I wouldn't be surprised if being a companion AI has a "no felons allowed" clause in their hiring requirements. What work, precisely, are you thinking she can do with the chibi or iPad style bodies, or disembodied and running on a server? And yet, she is required to be gainfully employed.
--- End quote ---
Okay, but in the previous comic, the government employee explicitly says that disembodied AI ex-convicts usually do not choose to be embodied. This means that May's situation is directly a result of her own choices - hers is "a niche case of a niche case". And with respect, I cannot imagine that many of the jobs that human ex-convicts do cannot be done by a disembodied AI, such as all kinds of industrial work, some service positions, etc. I mean seriously, a disembodied AI is probably better at operating machinery than a human. Common jobs for ex-convicts in my country include cooks, truck drivers, loads of industry work, and farm work. Considering that there are likely lots of disembodied AIs who are not ex-convicts, there is likely to be provisions for them to work in those fields. The legitimate problem that May faces is discrimination, not the lack of a good chassis. She is barred form lots of work because companies don't want to hire her, not because the law says she can't enter lots of fields. I did a cursory search and found a list of companies that have ex-convict hiring policies (the Fair Chance Business Pledge). Among them are a loooot of brands, and even software companies! Not precisely great, but it's an option.
Specifically, why doesn't she go the path of other disembodied AI ex-convicts? Sure, things are probably shitty for them too, but in the very least we can imagine that they don't need to be paying maintenance fees on their chassis, and the power costs would be limited to their processors, as opposed to processors and locomotion! About 90% of her problem comes from her chassis, because AIs have next to no needs!
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 15 Jan 2020, 22:46 ---Welcome, interesting new person!
If May's parole is analogous to typical conditions for parole in our world, she's required to find lawful employment. Yes, she could live in a server farm somewhere, but we don't know whether any way of making a living there is open to her. I would have to stretch my mind hard to figure out what jobs someone could do in a Pintsize-style chassis, the other low-cost option.
If it's like our world, a lot of variations on earning a living are explicitly forbidden. Common parole conditions forbid self-employment or working for relatives.
The traditional suit of clothes upon release is a tempting analogy. As you point out, a good humanoid body is much more expensive than that. A low-spec secondhand one, refurbed with a warranty, might be quite a bit more affordable. Say it was in the $4,000 range, like an eight year old Ford Fiesta. Still hard for taxpayers to swallow, but she could be given an installment plan to pay for part of it.
The system did see a need to issue her some kind of body. Might as well be one in working order. Especially since the goal at this point should be to reintegrate her into society if she will hold up her end, rather than continuing punishment past the end of her sentence.
--- End quote ---
I presume employment is only a requirement of parole? If this is the case, it is May getting a break from her prison term, so she has not, in fact, paid her debt to society. In which case, she honestly has no right to complain, because her situation is her still paying it. Do they require ex-convicts who have fully completed their sentences to be employed? I seriously do not think so, because you can't jail or fine an ex-offender just because they're unemployed, you can only put them back in prison if they still owe time.
EDIT: Also, with respect, none of this precludes her getting a job as a disembodied AI (like other disembodied AIs convicts) and saving up for a body.
BenRG:
You're missing the reason why May wanted a body. She wanted to be with Dale, evidently the first person who treated her as a friend and acted as if she could potentially be worth anything, attitude problem or not. This isn't a decision that she made on cold logic or cynicism. She wanted to be with her new friend who had treated her kindly and not as a runaway appliance.
May be metal, plastic and digital code but she's still a fully self-aware person with all the flaws and vulnerabilities. That includes the fact that prison was evidently an enormously traumatic experience for her. So, no, she couldn't 'just' do an alternative to get a body. The price, in terms of her mental and emotional health, would have been too high.
notsocool:
--- Quote from: BenRG on 16 Jan 2020, 00:03 ---You're missing the reason why May wanted a body. She wanted to be with Dale, evidently the first person who treated her as a friend and acted as if she could potentially be worth anything, attitude problem or not. This isn't a decision that she made on cold logic or cynicism. She wanted to be with her new friend who had treated her kindly and not as a runaway appliance.
May be metal, plastic and digital code but she's still a fully self-aware person with all the flaws and vulnerabilities. That includes the fact that prison was evidently an enormously traumatic experience for her. So, no, she couldn't 'just' do an alternative to get a body. The price, in terms of her mental and emotional health, would have been too high.
--- End quote ---
This is a completely fair reason. However, doesn't this come with also accepting the consequences of that choice? Isn't dealing with her substandard body part of this? Note: I'm not saying May is wrong for wanting things to be better for her, I am saying there isn't much reason for society to make things better for her.
Let me put it this way:
- May did not have a chassis before she committed her crime.
- AI chassis cost a lot of money.
- AIs who do not commit crimes have to work for that money, get jobs that come with a chassis, or convince someone to buy them one.
- May has done none of those things, plus she is a felon.
- May wants a chassis to be with her friend.
- May gets a crappy chassis anyway, for free!
Basically the only reason May has a chassis is because she committed a crime, served her time, was paroled, and asked for one.
Why on earth should she get a chassis that a perfectly law-abiding AI is not entitled to?
I mean, if every AI was entitled to a chassis and parolees are specifically denied one due to discrimination, that's another story entirely. But the discrimination May faces has nothing to do with her chassis, it's only to do with her employment opportunities because she's an ex-convict. I think quite honestly May is better off than the vast majority of human ex-convicts who commit crimes of similar severity, if for no other reason than the human equivalent (ill health) is way more crippling!
pwhodges:
--- Quote from: notsocool on 16 Jan 2020, 00:25 ---I think quite honestly May is better off than the vast majority of human ex-convicts who commit crimes of similar severity, if for no other reason than the human equivalent (ill health) is way more crippling!
--- End quote ---
That's a very low bar - certainly in the US, but also in the UK, and probably most other places. It is in fact a significant measure of man's inhumanity to man.
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