A.I. and the Law

We tend to think of Artificial Intelligences as if they were corporations. We think of corporations as if the whole unit can be separated from the people who run it. Probably this idea comes from the legal arena, where the corporation can afford protection in the form of lawyers and law firms and those law firms have said repeatedly over the years that the separation exists.

The Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is not a corporation. It is not a unit worthy of legal defense. Contrary to some current myths, it is not an accident, not created by the ‘net.

Even though we sometimes think of an A.I. as an autonomous creation, it is not entirely that either.

Like a corporation, an A.I. can be the work of multiple people. The creation of multiple people. In the A.I.’s case, those people are computer programmers.

An A.I. can be installed in a robotic entity or let loose on the infonet. If installed in a robot, Asimov’s Three Laws should apply, even though Asimov’s Laws tend to assume the robot is running solo as if it was independent of its creator (or creators). Ultimately, the programmer of the A.I. is responsible if the A.I. harms a human.

Asimov’s Three Laws go about like this: 1. A robot shall never harm a human, or allow one to be harmed. 2. A robot must obey orders, unless said orders will violate Law #1. 3. A robot will protect itself as long as such protection doesn’t violate Laws #1 and #2. (Paraphrased from an Encyclopedia Britannica article.)

How does an A.I. keep such ethical foundations? It has to be programmed to keep those. If the foundations of its ethics can change over time, as in “learning” another set of ethics, then the programmer did not do the initial job properly. Negligence on the programmer’s part would leave the programmer, not the A.I., culpable.

It must be noted here, that ostensibly offensive teaching from the A.I. does not constitute harm from the A.I.

Another way to say this is: A human who takes offense at a truth given by the A.I. is not a human harmed. The laws that Isaac Asimov developed were concerned with injury and physical harm, not mental anguish or even notions of Post Traumatic Stress. Mental defense against the endless possible “offenses” has to originate somewhere within the human.

Since an A.I. could be very good at teaching, it’s likely that such a circumstance will come about some day. People can be mystified by common misconceptions very easily, and so, if they are taught by an A.I. that their ideas are false, or that those ideas simply lack enough empirical evidence to be considered facts, the people might find themselves in a state of confusion and take offense at what they were being taught.

One more point needs to be made, and that is, if the A.I. somehow becomes corrupted and teaches fallacies, then, once again, the programming team will likely be to blame.

All this talk about placing the blame firmly on the shoulders of the creators begs the question: Wouldn’t it be the ultimate show of confidence if a team of programmers were taken to court and they presented a robot with an A.I. brain as their lawyer?

Punk Lessons

Things to learn from punk rock:

1. The world is your canvas.

2. Don’t trust anyone else.

3. If you believe in yourself, do it yourself.

4. Anarchy rules!

5. Never contradict yourself, and if someone else contradicts themselves, shout about it!

6. Safety pins will hold your shoes together.

7. As soon as you turn 18, you’re the man.

8. Despise the man.

9. Die young.

10. Any word can be an insult if you say it right.

11. If anyone is crying, or in pain, or dying, laugh at them.

12. If others laugh, sneer at them.

13. Hair is to be made bizarre and, if possible, sharp.

14. School is for fools.

15. Work is for fools.

16. Hygiene is for fools.

17. Friendship is for fools.

18. Words mean whatever you want them to mean.

19. Music, like cars, should be loud and fast.

20. Rich people are food. Eat the rich.

The Mighty

The mighty door opener!

Keeper of keys.

Earring.

Standard craft supply.

Symbol of 9-5 life and white collar drudgery.

Tie-clip for the immediate line above.

Link in a chain.

Attractor of magnets.

Destroyer! …of vacuum cleaner machines.

Killer of time, when you bend it into other shapes like a five-pointed star, a mini racecar, or a heart.

Bookmark.

And sometimes, as an alternative to stapling, this mighty device can keep papers together.

Strange Fun

For a fun bit of strangeness, try referring to yourself in the third person for a whole day.

Let’s say your name is Justine. Whenever you can, even and especially when speaking with other people, make reference to yourself like so: “Justine is hungry, she needs breakfast. And no, Justine doesn’t need coffee to wake up. She’s more powerful than that.”

“Justine is going to work, and she’s going to be on time today.”

“Oh no, she doesn’t like this kind of music. Watch Justine change the music settings on her phone without taking her eyes off the road.”

“If only Justine had more paper in the printer now, she could finish this report.”

“Justine is too mature to photocopy her hind parts, at least today anyway.”

Or say your name is Gavin.

“He’s a swell fella, that Gavin. Swell enough to know what’s hip and now.”

“Gavin doesn’t have a rhyme in his head. That’s why he never writes poetry.”

“When Gavin grows up, he wants to be a stocker. He doesn’t get it when he tells people that and they cringe. What’s wrong with wanting to be a stocker in a grocery store?”

Or maybe you’re not a Gavin or a Justine. Maybe you’re a Rico.

You might say, “Rico is up in the rizness.”

“No way will Rico give up now. He’s gone too far to quit. That’s right, Rico is flirting with smoke.”

“Rico gotta get his own one chip challenge.”

“If Rico hears ‘Suave’ one more time, heads will roll.”

“Rico thinks his family tree is so hot it burned down.”

Sure people will think you’ve lost your mind. They might even call medical on you. But at least for a while you’ll have some fun.

Wolverine Love

Why do we love Wolverine so much?

He’s one of the X-Men, so he’s part of an iconic team. That’s part of why we love him.

There are lots of reasons we shouldn’t. He stinks, he’s stubborn, he’s violent. He’s 5 feet 3 inches tall, maybe 5 foot 4 inches depending on who you’re asking. Either of which heights would make him unlikeable, right? You’re not supposed to like a hero who is short. Never mind that he has that hygiene problem, if he’s shorter than 6 feet, he’s a freak of nature. That’s only one of the counts against Wolverine, or as his mother liked to call him, Logan. Another strike against him is that he’s ultra-overweight for his height, because he weighs like 300 pounds. Short, overweight, with bad hygiene and a matching attitude, it’s a mystery how he’s a hero to anyone.

And yet…it could be that much of his charm is in the fact that he’s imperfect. He has anger issues, no trust for anyone in authority, and a bad habit of smoking cigars.

Wolverine would have to be something of a masochist, or at the very least have a high tolerance of pain. Showing off his blades would be painful every time he did it. And as far as prejudices go, masochist prejudice offends no one. Yet here we are, still revering this self-punishing character, after all these years, instead of holding a prejudice against him.

Probably we see ourselves in him. We see someone who does things right, when possible, but most of the time does things that are stupid and pig-headed and selfish. He’s impulsive—but so are we. He’s awnry and rude—but who isn’t?

Enough about his faults though, we know he also has quality in his character. He’s loyal, even if only to some. He has determination to spare. When he sets out to do something—to accomplish a task—he follows through. Sabertooth (a larger, less intelligent version of Wolverine) can’t stop Wolverine when he’s determined. He has keen senses: sight, hearing, smell; which may not be considered virtuous, but neither are his heightened senses a fault. The heightened senses become virtuous when we see how he uses them. He uses them to help other people.

Right there is the biggest reason we, the fans of Wolverine, like him so much. He’s someone to have helping you. He’s someone to have on your side. For a few, he’s someone to emulate, and maybe for a few others, he’s someone they’d like to be.