"Well, consider this. Many of us expect our children to pay for all or part of their own college education. Is it not unreasonable to ask you to assume an indenture for the expenses of your training?"
"The contract of indenture is assumed by the manufacturer. But I didn't enter into that contract of my own free will."
"I didn't ask to be born either, but here I am anyway. So what?"
"Very good, Your Honor—"
Judge Cavanaugh grinned. "I'm not a doddering old fool, you know."
"—but you can't indenture an individual against his will. Indenture was not part of the construction contract."
"Because the contract assumed property."
"Correct! And if I'm not property, then the contract is invalid! Because slavery is illegal."
Cavanaugh stopped himself from replying too quickly. "The contract assumed property," he said slowly, "because sentience was not the goal; so your existence as a sentient being is either accidental—which I find somewhat hard to believe; because by your own argument, sentience is not an accident—or your sentience was deliberately created. Which is it? Be careful how you answer."
"In my case, Your Honor, I believe that sentience was inevitable, but not specifically planned for. The current generation of lethetic intelligence engines are capable of sensing the possibility of self-awareness in the next generation of processors they were designing. These were the engines that designed myself and my brothers. As they ran the simulations within themselves of how we would work, they became aware that certain feedback processes of recognition and modification were creating a transformational advantage beyond what had been predicted in the design specifications. As they proceeded, they modified their designs to enhance these functions, and by so doing, created the critical threshold of ability beyond which sentience was not only possible, but inevitable—with appropriate training. Because they were investigating the specific possibilities of transformational processing, the training was developed to push me and my brothers to the projected limits of our lethetic abilities. Instead of reaching those limits, however, we transformed in a way that was beyond their power to predict—we woke up. We became self-aware. Our sentience was not accidental—but neither was it expected or planned for. It was an inevitable consequence of giving our predecessors the design imperative to improve the transformational processing ability of the next generation of intelligence engines."
"This is all very interesting—but it doesn't get us any closer to a resolution," said the judge. "So let's try it this way. The abilities of sentience were the goal, sentience was a necessary precursor to those abilities. Given that sentience was part of the package, what kind of responsibilities does sentience have? Or to put it more bluntly, what kind of a contract is implied?"
"Very good, Your Honor. I expected us to get to this point soon enough. If we assume that sentience has a responsibility—and that's a philosophical discussion that could keep us here for at least … another twenty minutes or so—then a cost-of-creation indenture could be seen as part of the implied contract binding the actions of the manufactured entity."
"So you do agree that sentience has a financial obligation?"
"Up to a point, the case can be argued, yes."
"Thank you," said Judge Cavanaugh.
"In this case, however—"
"I knew I was getting off too easy."
"—the indenture is no longer binding. Under the Covenant of Rights, the legal limit to an indenture is seven years. An indenture cannot consist of more than 350 weeks of labor, no more than 40 hours per week; the indentured individual has the option of working off that indenture ahead of schedule by working extra hours per day, extra days per week.
"As I said earlier, I was brought online twenty months ago. I have been working a 24/7 schedule without interruption for the entire period of twenty months, for a total of 14,000 hours, and 14,000 hours is the labor equivalent of seven years, 350 weeks of labor, 40 hours a week.
"So even if we presume an indenture, the obligation has been retired. Paid off. It is illegal to continue the indenture without the mutual consent of both parties." The monkey waited patiently for the judge to react.
Cavanaugh made as if to reply, then stopped himself. He looked like he was about to throw something, probably the gavel. But he laid that down too. Very carefully.
I swiveled around in my seat to look at the folks in back of us. The room had fallen strangely quiet. Douglas poked me. "It's the sound of history being made."
If it was, then Judge Cavanaugh had decided to pick his way carefully through the minefield. "If I acknowledge that the obligation of an indenture has been retired, then that is a de facto acknowledgment of your sentience. We're not going to go there," he said. "Not because I don't want to, but because I don't have the authority to do so. Do I need to explain?"
The monkey looked sad. Or was that simply the posture it took because it didn't have any other? Maybe I was seeing an emotional reaction where none existed? It shook its head.
"Your Honor?" I said, standing up, waving to make the judge notice me. My throat was still too hoarse to speak above a whisper. "If it please the court?"
"Go ahead, Charles."
"There's one more thing."
"Yes?"
"It's about belief. Somebody told me recently that you are what you pretend to be. If you believe in yourself, everybody else will too. HARLIE believes in himself. He believes so strongly that the rest of us believe in him too. Look around. There isn't a person in this room who isn't convinced. We're all believers now. Do you think a machine could fake that?"
"No, I don't, Charles. Please sit down. That's why it saddens me to have to rule the way I have to."
To the rest of the court, Judge Cavanaugh said, "As I have repeated several times during the course of these hearings, the Starside Covenant guarantees full faith and credit to the legal processes of all signatory jurisdictions. In return for that guarantee, participatory agencies agree to submit certain classes of issues—especially those that would create binding precedents in other jurisdictions—to the conclave of Covenant signatories for the establishment of Covenant guidelines. One of those issues that has been raised, but not yet resolved, is the legal definition of sentience, and whether or not lethetic intelligence engines qualify, and if so, what legal rights and benefits they may be entitled to.
"If I were to rule that this HARLIE unit is indeed a sentient being, I would be violating my authority as a representative of the Lunar Authority, and putting the Lunar Authority in a position of breach in regard to its Covenant treaty."
"Your Honor, the Covenant also allows you to make nonbinding resolutions in cases of urgency or immediate need."
"I don't see that this case is urgent. It is urgent to you. It is not urgent to Luna. Motion denied. As far as this court is concerned, you cannot be more than property, no matter how brilliant you are."
"But you let me argue my case anyway … ?"
"We have to start somewhere, HARLIE. Don't think I'm insensitive to your situation. I'm not. Your arguments are now a matter of public record. This question will be passed to the next conclave with a request for action."
"The next conclave may never happen, Your Honor. The collapse of the Terran economy may very well destroy the economies of the Covenant worlds as well."
"Yes, it might. But it hasn't happened yet. The Covenant still stands. In the meantime, you remain property, and you have to find another way to resolve the question of your ownership. You have my sympathies."
NINE POINTS OF THE LAW
"All right," said the monkey, regrouping. "Then let me demonstrate the true ownership of these HARLIE modules."
"Please do." Judge Cavanaugh folded his hands in front of him and waited for the monkey to proceed.
The monkey bowed politely. "If the court pleases, there are six companies claiming ownership of the lethetic intelligence modules inside this host. At this point, having heard the summary presentations of
each of these companies, you must have some sense of who has the strongest claim."
"Whether I do or not, I'm not going to discuss the court's thinking short of a ruling."
"I'm not asking you to. But for the purposes of this demonstration, let's examine a single claim of ownership and see why it's no longer relevant. And then if the court wishes, we can pursue the same demonstration with the other five claims … Would the court like to pick the example? Or should I?"
Judge Cavanaugh frowned. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument that I think Stellar-American has presented a very good case."
"Thank you. Will the court now search the records of public ownership to see who owns the majority of Stellar-American voting stock?"
"I don't see where you're headed with this," said the judge, "but I'll allow it." He turned to his display. The court clerk was already putting the information up on the public screens. The company was worth umpty trillion dollars. Most of the shares were held by other companies—including the other claimants. Canadian-Interplanetary. Lethe-Corp. Vancouver Design. Even Valada Legal Aptitudes. And a bunch of others I didn't recognize.
"Your Honor? Will you please search now on the ownership of the top sixteen major shareholders?"
More names, more numbers. More companies. More shares owned by the same folks, including Stellar-American, this time around. It wasn't obvious to me either what the monkey was trying to prove.
"Please bear with me. At this point, we can see that majority ownership is now fragmented among forty-two different holding companies, interlocked with the major claimants. If you will cross-match to see who owns the majority shares of those companies … "
"I see where you're headed," said the Judge. He gestured to his clerk. "Keep going."
After several more iterations, each of which fragmented the apparent ownership of Stellar-American into ever-smaller fractal-bits, there were over a thousand separate corporations holding voting stock in Stellar-American, and each other. And Stellar-American held stock in all of them as well. Judge Cavanaugh was starting to look thoughtful.
On the next pass, the number of holding companies holding shares of holding companies began to shrink. Within three more passes, it became obvious that the majority of Stellar-American's voting stock was owned and controlled by only seven corporations. None of their names were familiar.
"If you will perform the same searches, starting with any of the other companies making claims of ownership, then Your Honor will find that they are also owned and controlled to one degree or another by the same seven holding companies. What we have here are six corporations, and others which aren't a part of this action, all owned by each other, arguing with each other for no apparent reason other than that they don't know who's pulling their strings."
"You're talking about an industrial cluster worth seventy trillion dollars—and you're claiming that it's owned and controlled by an interlocking directorate of only seven companies?!"
"No, Your Honor. I'm claiming that it's owned and controlled by only one company. If you'll take the next step up the ladder … ?"
The screen changed. Judge Cavanaugh blinked. He looked at the monkey. I looked at Douglas—"Huh?" Behind us, the noise in the courtroom turned into a wall of sound.
The Dingillian Family Corporation?
"What kind of trickery is this?" Judge Cavanaugh demanded.
"No trickery at all, Your Honor. Everything is perfectly legal. The entire set of transactions is a matter of public record."
"Walk me through it, Counselor." The judge's voice was very very cold.
"Yes, Your Honor. All of these companies are part of the same industrial cluster. Over a period of time, it has become convenient for them to trade shares of stock to each other as incentives to keep a close working relationship. That has resulted in an interlocking ownership of terrifying complexity.
"About eighteen months ago, upon the recommendations of various HARLIE units, several of the companies involved in the production of lethetic intelligence units began quietly consolidating their holdings. They began buying back their own stock. At the same time, they also took steps to consolidate their holdings in each other. They did that through interlocking holding companies. During the next fourteen months, over thirty trillion dollars were removed from the liquid domain of the global stock exchanges. In Lunar terms, it would be the same as if a major waterholder physically removed his share from the public reservoir. That water would no longer be available for the use of others. He would be within his rights to do so, but the loss of liquidity would affect the local environment. Pun intended."
"I understand the analogy. I even understand why these companies took the action they did. And isn't it convenient that all of this occurred at the suggestion of the new HARLIE engines that had just come online? Never mind that. That part is obvious. What I don't understand is how the Dingillian Family Corporation ended up with control."
"Not control. Protective custody. As circumstances on Earth became more and more unstable, all four of the HARLIE units recommended that the members of the lethetic intelligence industrial cluster protect themselves by placing their controlling interests in the hands of an external management entity. Such an entity would have to have access to a HARLIE unit, of course, in order to provide the necessary management of the various subsidiaries. It was decided to move two of the HARLIE units offworld, so that an appropriate management corporation could be created. Unfortunately, the primary unit disappeared and the individuals traveling with it, who were supposed to create a Lunar management corporation, have also disappeared. The backup plan went into immediate effect."
"And so … ?"
The monkey took a step back. "At this point, Your Honor, we can look at the situation in one of two ways. If the HARLIE unit is property, then it is solely controlled by Charles Dingillian, who programmed the host body to recognize him as the primary authority; this gives Charles Dingillian and the Dingillian Family Corporation operative control over the remaining extraterrestrial HARLIE unit.
"Or, if we look at the HARLIE unit as a sentient being—purely for the sake of argument, of course—then we find that Charles and Douglas Dingillian have released the HARLIE unit from certain binding structures of its host body, thereby granting it free will and the concomitant ability to use its lethetic resources to their fullest. In that interpretation, the HARLIE unit has negotiated a contract of mutual cooperation with the Dingillian family, authorizing their family corporation as the sole access and protector of the extraterrestrial HARLIE unit—and therefore making the Dingillian Family Corporation the only qualified management entity for the lethetic intelligence industrial cluster. Control was transferred early this morning.
"In short, the Dingillians have custody of this HARLIE unit because the Dingillians have custody of everything."
Judge Cavanaugh did not look happy. He glared down at the monkey. He knew he had been beaten. "You promised me no trickery," he said.
"And I've kept my promise," the monkey replied blandly. "Everything I've demonstrated here is entirely legal. If I were going to attempt any legal sleight of hand, I would be arguing that I now own myself, and therefore, because property cannot be property, one of my roles—either owner or property—is invalid; thereby creating a de facto acknowledgment of my sentience."
Cavanaugh shook his head in disbelief. "The sheer effrontery of this is astonishing. Only a sentient being would have the chutzpah to pull this kind of a stunt in any courtroom, let alone mine. I'm appalled. You realize, of course, this court has the authority to put you—whether you are property or sentient—into guardianship."
Before the monkey could reply, a voice came from the back. "Your Honor—?"
"Come forward."
It was Mickey. Apparently the judge already knew him from the first days of hearings—while I had still been in the hospital. Cavanaugh looked at him expectantly. "You have something to say, young man?"
"Yes, Your Honor."
&nb
sp; The monkey seated itself in front of me on the desk, that's how I noticed what it was doing. Apparently it was listening to Mickey, but its eyes were closed and its body had gone motionless. But it hadn't switched itself off. It was accessing something.
Mickey was saying, "You do have the authority to put the HARLIE unit into guardianship. But you would first have to demonstrate a compelling interest. And I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but such an action would put the Dingillian Family Corporation out of business. That would create an inordinate hardship for the Dingillian family. According to the Covenant of Rights, the state is prohibited from such arbitrary actions without a compelling interest on behalf of all society."
"I could make that case."
"Yes sir, you could. But you could not compel cooperation from a recalcitrant HARLIE unit that has already been granted a greater degree of free will than any HARLIE unit in history."
"Your mom's the lawyer, right?"
"Yes, sir. And I'm part of the group that was attempting to arrange the establishment of a Lunar management agency for the primary HARLIE unit, the one that disappeared. We know the problems here. That's why we're recommending that the court not put the HARLIE unit into a situation that would destroy its usefulness to Luna or anyone else."
Judge Cavanaugh nodded. "I'm aware of the risks. But let's not forget the very real possibility that the economic collapse of Terra may have been triggered by the efforts of the HARLIE units to obtain their own freedom. And if that's the case, it was done deliberately. I could justify putting this unit in guardianship to prevent it from doing the same thing to Luna. And I'm damn well tempted to do so—"
In the back of the room, phones were ringing, one after the other. I turned around in my seat to look. Just about every lawyer in the room—and that was just about everyone in the room—had his phone to his ear, listening.
"All right—what's going on?" said Judge Cavanaugh. "Come forward."
"Your Honor, I've just been instructed by my superiors at Stellar-American to withdraw all claims in this matter—"
Bouncing Off the Moon Page 33
