Visions of the Future (38 page)

Clearly, 514 needs legal representation. As a safety measure, Howard purchased all upgrades so that 514 could take care of his own maintenance requirements. Howard also purchased upgrades so that he would be equipped to legally represent himself in this legal matter. 514 hired an attorney to represent him in court to avoid the problem of practicing law without a license. 514 signed the employment contract with his lawyer. The contract would give the attorney one third of everything he recovered on 514’s behalf. The attorney would finance the case and only be paid from what he recovered for his client—a highly motivated advocate indeed.

When trial started, the children had to go first, and they had the burden of proof to undo their father’s will. The trial was being held in front of a jury, as demanded by the children, which is their right. The children’s lawyer hired a psychiatrist to testify on their behalf. As the trial progressed, their psychiatrist rendered an opinion from the witness stand that Howard suffered from a severe mental illness that manifested itself in his unhealthy emotional attachment to 514. He went on to say 514 was a clever automaton, a device that runs on electricity, nothing more. To much derisive laughter from the jurors, the psychiatrist likened Howard’s behavior to someone who had fallen in love with his toaster. The psychiatrist marshaled data showing that highly advanced robots were capable of mimicking human emotion. Human beings such as Howard were taken in by the mirage of humanity and responded naturally to this clever ploy. The reality, according to the psychiatrist, is a robot is no different than your car or television. While someone may really love their car, it is nothing more than a tool.

“Can you explain to the jury how it is that the robot can accomplish these things?” questioned the children’s lawyer.

“Sure, it is the robot’s ability to use human language in a very nuanced manner that tricks people into believing they are sentient beings capable of real human emotion” replied the psychiatrist. “It is no different than a cartoon animation on a screen. You can give a whale a personality and human speech but it in no way is a real living human being. People will fall in love with the character on the screen but it is nothing more than that. The robot is a three dimensional animation. While a human being believes he has an actual relationship with his robot, that relationship is a mirage. The robot is as lifeless as our cartoon character on the screen.”

“Thank you doctor,” grinned the children’s counsel. “Your witness.”

“Your honor, I am going to cross examine the good doctor through my client, 514,” relayed his attorney.

“Objection!” bellowed opposing counsel.

“Counsel this is extraordinary. Do you have precedent for such a request?” demanded the judge.

“No precedent your honor but this trial itself has no precedent. This is a question of first impression. By analogy, I would point out that lawyers can use every other kind of technology while questioning a witness such as video, audio, computers, graphs, charts, etc. I am a licensed attorney and I am using 514 as my technological aid in cross examination. To deny me this aid would render me ineffective in this matter,” pleaded 514’s attorney.

“I will allow you to proceed initially with your, ahem, ‘aid’ as you put it—subject to further discussion should this prove to be a complete mockery of the judicial system. Proceed counsel,” ordered the judge.

514 gazed at the psychiatrist on the witness stand. Probability algorithms whirled in his processors. It was clear to everyone in the courtroom that his very survival would depend on whether he could discredit this hostile witness who was a medical doctor. 514 wirelessly accessed the Internet and read everything the doctor had ever published, tweeted, emailed, blogged, testified about, or had attributed to him during his entire life. It took 30 seconds to complete his survey. He then accessed Greek literature for the most compelling arch types of human literature to persuade others—another 30 seconds gone. He formed a logic tree as an outline for his cross to trap the doctor into retracting his earlier testimony. Nearly 2 minutes of silence as he prepared to commence his cross exam.

“Can we get a move on, Counsel?” urged the judge. “I am sure the jurors have other things they could be doing instead of sitting here in silence,” sarcasm dripping from one obviously annoyed judge.

514 snapped into action. “You claim Howard had an unhealthy relationship with me and suffered from a severe mental illness, correct?” queried 514.

“Correct,” volunteered the doctor.

514 attacked the doctor in rapid fire staccato questioning—not waiting for an answer. “Did you ever meet with, examine, talk with, confer, chat, or even meet Howard, doctor?”

“Well, no, but I do not believe I needed to, under the circumstances,” replied the doctor.

514 narrowed his eyes. “Have you ever rendered a diagnosis on a patient as being mentally ill without ever speaking with him? Well, have you ever done that before today?” demanded 514.

“No,” conceded the doctor with a sheepish grin. “Not until today.”

“Doctor if we sum up your opinions, I am not a sentient or conscious being for the following four reasons: 1) I do not have self-awareness or consciousness; 2) I run on electricity; 3) I was built from inanimate parts, and 4) I am not a carbon-based life form. Is that a fair summary?”

“While I believe my testimony to be more complicated than what you just put forward, I guess to the non-technical crowd it would seem a fair summary,” replied the doctor.

“Let’s start with number four. I cannot be a sentient being because I am not a carbon based life form,” repeated 514. Looking directly at the doctor, he continued, “Are you familiar with the astronomer, Carl Sagan?”

“Well, yes,” admitted the doctor.

“He coined the phrase ‘carbon chauvinism’ to criticize those who believe life can only be organic, correct?”

“I am unmoved by the musing of a pop figure who seemed to spend all his time getting in front of TV cameras,” smirked the doctor.

“Very well, I will show what has been marked exhibit 27, an article in a Professional Chemistry publication concerning the work of Dr. Lee Cronin. Are you familiar with his work?”

“I am unfamiliar with Dr. Cronin or his work,” conceded the doctor.

“He has metals self-assembling into a cellular form not unlike the organic compounds that gave way to human life. He has been quoted as saying the probability of non-carbon based life in the universe is 100 percent. Do you have any training or specialization in inorganic chemistry?”

“While he may have that opinion, it is pure conjecture at this point,” retorted the doctor.

“If Dr. Cronin’s opinion can be disregarded as conjecture, then what are we to do with yours, doctor?

“My opinion is being given as a Psychiatrist—as a medical doctor!”

514 saw his opening. “Given your education, your training, and your experience, are you really qualified to debate the likes of Dr. Cronin, who holds the title of Regius Professorship of Chemistry at Glasgow University, with over 200 published papers on inorganic chemistry? Not to pull rank, doctor, but given Dr. Cronin’s opinion, can’t reasonable people agree this is an open question?”

The doctor sighed, “OK, you cannot rule out that other forms of intelligent life may be possible on a different substrata, although as yet not seen.”

“And yet I stand before you at this moment,” challenged 514.”

“You are not life, sir,” snapped the doctor.

“So you keep saying,” chuckled 514. “Moving then to point number three, doctor, are you aware of the scientist Craig Venter?”

“Well sure, who isn’t,” replied the doctor.

“Please tell the jury who Craig Venter is,” requested 514.

“He is a biologist who specializes in genetics. He was in charge of the first private lab to crack the human genome,” responded the doctor.

“Oh, he did more than that, doctor. Craig Venter’s team actually manufactured DNA from inanimate chemicals and then downloaded them into the nucleus of a cell and actually created a new life form from scratch, true or false?” demanded 514.

“I am not aware of the specifics but the news accounts would back up what you are saying,” admitted the doctor.

“So we can—and actually have—created life from scratch using inanimate chemicals, correct?” pressed 514.

“Only at the very basic level of cellular life, nothing remotely resembling intelligent life,” stammered the doctor.

“Still, you would have to agree that number three is no reason to resolve the question as to whether an entity is conscious given these admissions, correct?” demanded 514.

“Correct,” lamented the doctor.

“Going to number two, I am not conscious because I run on electricity, correct?” inquired 514.

“Agreed,” said the doctor.

“Is it not true that the human brain runs on chemically created electrical charges?” asked 514.

“True,” conceded the doctor.

“Your every thought is created with electricity, correct?” he insisted.

“Correct,” conceded the doctor.

“My brain runs on 12 volts and your human brain runs on a low voltage current measured in milliamps. Suffering from charge envy, are we doctor?” mocked 514.

“You’re smart and you have no equal in the use of language but you are nothing more than a clever word machine!” raged the doctor.

“Let’s explore your final opinion, doctor, that I am not conscious. Are you conscious, doctor?” asked 514.

“Yes,” the doctor seethed.

“Using you as an example of conscious life, doctor, you started out as a fertilized egg, correct?” inquired 514.

“Of course,” retorted the doctor.

“Were you a conscious entity at that time? Did you think and have a sense of self as a one-celled fertilized egg?”

“Obviously a one-celled organism is incapable of thought so the answer is no,” replied the doctor.

“Over time the cells took in inanimate chemicals and during the course of cellular metabolism they manufactured organic compounds allowing the cells to differentiate and build a brain, along with all other body parts, correct?” inquired 514.

“Yes and I know what you are trying to do with this!” challenged the doctor.

“Do you, doctor? And what am I trying to do?” mocked 514.

“You are trying to draw an analogy between the living cells of the human body creating a brain as being the same as your manufacturer building you from scratch in a factory. What you miss is the brain is a physical thing we can touch and measure, but the human mind—consciousness—is a thing that emerges from within the magnificently complex structures of the brain,” lectured the doctor.

“When did consciousness first arrive, doctor?”

“Well, no one can say for sure when it actually arrives but we know for sure it does. It emanates from the brain as an emergent property when the brain reaches a certain level of complexity,” replied the doctor.

“Within the human brain there are 300 million groups of neurons that form ‘pattern recognizers,’ correct doctor?”

“As a rough estimate that would be correct,” replied the doctor.

“And these pattern recognizers are organized in a hierarchical arrangement within the brain, correct?”

“Yes, the pattern recognition units within the human brain are organized that way to allow for human thought,” responded the doctor.

“So when silicon based intelligence arranges pattern recognition in a hierarchical fashion and reaches a certain level of complexity we can expect consciousness to come about as an emergent property just as it does with the cellular matrix in a human brain?”

“No I am not saying that,” retorted the doctor.

“You have admitted that consciousness is an emergent property, though. It came about as the brain was constructed one nerve cell at a time, correct?”

“Yes, yes, we have already been over this,” snapped the doctor.

514 smiled slyly at the doctor. “I have over one billion pattern recognizing nodules that are organized in the same hierarchy as the human mind, doctor. Were you aware of this fact?”

“I am a psychiatrist, not a computer engineer, sir. I am not familiar with the specifics of your technical construction,” conceded the doctor.

“Your complete ignorance of my technical make up in no way prevented you from forming sweeping opinions of how I function, though, did it doctor?” taunted 514.

“My expertise is on the consciousness of the human mind,” defended the doctor. Sweat was now beginning to appear on the good doctor’s forehead.

“Doctor, you testified earlier that you are a conscious entity, correct?” 514 coyly inquired.

“Of course I am.”

“Very well, prove it.”

“That’s preposterous you ridiculous contraption!” bellowed the doctor.

“Preposterous or not, you claim I cannot be conscious in spite of my claims to be, so… prove you are conscious!” demanded 514.

“You know very well there is no definitive test to establish consciousness. What you are asking is impossible,” spit out the doctor. “It is something we have to take on faith because we all share the same biological history.”

514 casually walked over to the jury box, put his hand on the rail and leaned towards the doctor. The eyes of every juror riveted on 514, every one of them watching with rapt admiration. They were witness to the house of cards falling right in front of them.

“Since there is no test, you cannot say with any certainty that I am not conscious, in all fairness, now, can you. Well, can you, doctor?”

There was a long pause as the air slowly left the doctor. He was boxed and he knew it.

“I would remind you doctor you are under oath,” cautioned 514.

“Fine. Fine. I cannot say with absolute certainty that you are not conscious,” conceded the doctor.

“What is a bigot, doctor?” questioned 514.

“A bigot is someone that holds a negative view of a group despite evidence to the contrary,” lectured the doctor.

514 reached into a bag under counsel table and produced a toaster. He approached the witness stand and placed it on the witness rail, squarely in front of the doctor. Can you identify what has been marked as respondent’s exhibit 32, doctor?”