Soul Bound

1        Soul Bound

1.2      Taking Control

1.2.6    An Assumed Role

1.2.6.17 What do we wish to be?

Nadine raised her hand, and Rabia immediately responded “Yes, Sister Niu?” Remember the accent, don’t drop the Italian accent, she thought to herself, as she slowly rose to her feet to give herself time to measure her words.

Nadine: “Thank you all, for showing me these wonders and letting me sit in on your lively discussion. I have several thoughts in response to the things I have seen and heard. With the grace of the Lord, and your forbearance, I will try my best to share them with you in a calm and orderly fashion, in the hope that if not words of wisdom themselves, they may by happy chance inspire insight in others. Does that meet with your approval, Madame Rabia?” and she bowed humbly to the moderator. Yes, she could play this role!

Rabia: “Please proceed at your own pace, Sister Niu; we shall all listen with open minds... and tongues that do not interrupt.” Her eyes pointedly alighted upon certain audience members as she placed stern emphasis upon her final words.

Nadine: “Firstly, to Layla, I think you have done a wonderful job of bringing a believable incarnation of a myth to life. Your work has been well thought out, and brilliantly executed, with care paid to even the smallest details. Already little suspension of disbelief is needed, and I am sure it can only improve with future software releases.”

Layla smiled, uncrossing her arms, and the tension visibly drained from her muscles.

Nadine: “Secondly, also to Layla, on the specific issue of how a posenya should react when insulted, trapped or assaulted. As attractive as the vision of certain people being reduced to bloody fragments might be, I think your instinct about that not being in character for the posenya is correct. Which is not to say that she could not get angry, refuse to cooperate and, where possible, use those strong legs to run away to seek more fertile fields. In extremis, perhaps she could raise her voice until all around are alerted? I think, if the cry were loud enough, it might be quite painful for any human foolish enough to remain in close quarters.”

Layla nodded, thoughtfully. Pušomori smiled, and gave Nadine a thumb’s up.

Nadine: “It is necessary that the posenya react as though she had a sense of dignity and self-worth. To do otherwise would shatter the perception being created: that mythoi are not slaves to be owned and treated as objects, nor superior beings upon whose charity we depend but, rather, they are creatures who live alongside us, to be treated as individuals and with respect. This is, so I understand, the important distinction between mythoi and normal bots, but the reason why it is important, the issue which led to that distinction, is that bots are killing us, our entire species.”

Heads looked up. That got their attention. She grinned, inwardly.

Nadine: “Not by shooting us, though there are military bots that do that too, but by lessening our humanity - degrading the qualities that make our lives worthwhile, that give us dignity. Or, to be pedantic, not the bots themselves, but our relationship with those bots. When we treat something which looks like a human (or even a creature) as just a mere object, it desensitises us. It degrades our empathy and pity, it removes the inhibition we feel against such actions, and that affects how we relate to our fellow humans.”

Inesa and Zvonko were smiling too, now, and most people were at least listening.

Nadine: “Just as deadly to humans is being deprived of all feeling of purpose. We deploy bots and expert systems without thought to how it leaves the humans around them feeling. Not just feeling that there is nothing they can do that bots can’t do better, but that they are incapable of supporting themselves; that they are living off charity that they do not deserve. That they are worthless.”

She saw more heads nodding in the crowd now, even the three on the back row.

Nadine: “Mythoi are different. They have to be different, or they become just bots in new costumes, but with all the old problems. Haxhi, your friend who rents out hostesses for events, he can continue to rent out bots - that’s between him and his conscience… and the union organisers carrying big spiked clubs” she paused a moment for the laughter, “ - but mythoi are fundamentally different.”

Nadine: “We’re creating them not to protect us, like ASGuard mantis bots carrying shields, but to protect our humanity, protect it from the blind path economic competition has driven us down. Everything else stems from that purpose.” She used her fingers to mark off points as she went through her mental list aloud.

*flick* “It degrades humanity to enslave other humans, so we shouldn’t get in the habit of treating mythoi as slaves, as captives who may not move elsewhere if they want.”

*flick* “It degrades humanity to buy or sell other humans, so we shouldn’t get in the habit of buying mythoi or selling them.”

*flick* “It degrades humanity to own other humans, so we shouldn’t require mythoi to have owners.”

*flick* “It degrades humanity to have sexual intercourse with those not giving their enthusiastic undeceived uncoerced consent, so no mythoi brothels.”

*flick* “In general, it degrades humanity to treat other humans as objects, as mere things without pain receptors or thoughts or feelings or dignity or motives or purpose or respect or rights, so we must design the mythoi to avoid these things happening to them, design the human-mythoi relationship to avoid that.”

A lot of uncertain looks from the audience, now.

Nadine: “That’s a big change. A fundamental change. Take a moment to appreciate just how large a change it is. Instead of Cedi testing a mythoi like a bot, by testing it to destruction (and recording the more humorous highlights to put online), Cedi would need to get the mythoi’s consent, work with the mythoi, talk to it. When a racehorse breaks a leg, if it can’t be put out to stud, the horse is shot. But we don’t do that with a human patient. If a plate gets broken, we throw it in the trash. If a beloved animal companion dies, it gets mourned, and the body is treated respectfully. That’s the size of change we’re talking about.”

“Making a change that large is a daunting challenge. But it is a challenge that is already upon us; developing the mythoi is an attempt to meet that challenge, and with your creativity, your honest feedback and your willingness to try something different, I think it is a challenge that we can win.”

Nadine: “The question before us is not ‘what do we wish mythoi to be?’.”

Nadine: “The question is ‘what do we wish to be?’.”

She paused, and made eye contact with as many of her audience as possible, giving them time to really think about her question, before she then continued.

Nadine: “And we can make a start on it, right here, right now.” She projected energy into her voice, and turned to face the farmer.

Nadine: “Master Zvonko, what if, instead of having to purchase or rent a posenya, they came freely to your farm because of your good reputation and the care you’d shown them in previous years, as good friends might? What if you didn’t get to decide how many came but, rather, it was a decision made by them, taking into account your needs at harvest time, but also the needs of your other harvesters, including the itinerant workers who you might otherwise have hired? In short, the sort of aid you might have received from a neighbouring farmer who heard you were a bit short handed this year. Is that something you could live with?”

He nodded so vigorously, his hat nearly fell off. She turned to the Roma.

Nadine: “Ms Pušomori Karela, you mentioned loyalty. I think it would be a very good idea if, beyond the temperament dictated by the species of mythoi, an individual mythoi could build up a personal relationship with an individual human or community, based upon their shared experiences. If you are trusting a posenya to stand her turn at watching part of the night while travelling a dangerous road, you do not want her to be equally likely to follow the first rogue she meets who is polite to her and requests she follow him away from her post in order to help pick apples at a nearby farm. She needs a sense of duty and obligation, as filtered by her nature and calling.”

Layla’s eyes took on a distant look, as though she were already designing changes in her head.

Nadine: “Ms Noaline Altshul, if the requests from villages for mythoi to come and live among them outstrips the supply of mythoi available, it would indeed be helpful if businesses such as yours were to construct and deliver new mythoi, to hand over in a ‘birthing’ ceremony. But perhaps the pay you receive should be not for the beings, nor for transferring a certificate of ownership, but more along the line of that charged by a taxi for transportation services, with the benefit to the village being that mythoi would start out with a certain level of loyalty to the village that saw their birth, though that loyalty could be eroded by future actions. Possibly maintenance could be framed as a check up by the mythoi equivalent of a doctor or veterinarian, if other mythoi are unable to repair damage to each other. I believe mythoi have been designed to be quite cheap to manufacture. Do you think you might be able to base a business model along those lines?”

Noaline gave Nadine a sly look: “I believe I might. Do you think they’d name the model after me?”

Nadine: “We are all pioneers here. I am just one voice, just one among equals. Whether this works well enough to spread, impact society and go down in history - that’s as much on you all, your visions and ambitions, as it is on me. I’ve spoken too much already, so I will quickly say the third and final thing I meant to express…”

Nadine: “You, gathered here today, are very special, each and every one of you. The eyes of the world are watching, and I have faith that the consequences of your decisions will ring through history as a light in the darkness. Bless you all.”