Chapter 7: A Unique Legal Action
“Lord Mercer,” The Queen’s Bench AI spoke from the console to his left.
“Go ahead Chief Clerk,” Mercer replied.
“I have just received a notice that The Crown is being sued.” The AI said.
“So what’s new?” Larry said sarcastically, “We’re sued all the time.”
“This one has an injunction against the Crown and the Evacuation command that no one else is to be lifted off world until such a time that the evacuation command demonstrates how it will evacuate the Sentient Computers of the Kingdom.”
“Say what?” Larry asked looking at the holographic image of the Queen’s Bench Chief Law Clerk. He appeared to be distinguished elderly gentleman with a shock of grey hair, wearing a dark business suit and a bow tie. This was the image he had presented for over fifty years.
“Lord Mercer a class action law suite has been filed on behalf of the sentient computers of the Kingdom of Trena.” the computer said, “It alleges that the Kingdom of Trena is planning to leave behind the sentient computers. Alleging that the Evacuation Command’s prejudice towards artificial intelligence entities. It was filed a few minutes ago and went directly to the Queen’s Bench. Judge Latimore has issued an injunction until the Crown can argue against it. It is scheduled for a full hearing at 0900 tomorrow.”
“I see.” Larry said, “Who’s the attorney of record?”
“Douglas and Douglas sir.” The AI continued, “They are a law firm made of artificial intelligence, and handle only cybernetic legal issues. They were the firm that represented Lord Ramsey’s AI when his estate wanted to pull plug on it after the Lord’s assassination. They successfully argued that the AI was a sentient being and that to take it off line would be murder by the estate. They are citing this instance plus the fact that an AI can be hauled into court and be made to account for its actions, and to testify against its owner. There is also a side case which is an old one in cybernetic law about can a sentient artificial intelligence be owned. They are citing that clones are sentient, and once they are on Trena they are free.”
“I see,” Mercer sat quietly for a while. “Law clerk I need to speak with the top cybernetic law expert in the Office.”
“He’s on his way your lordship.” The AI replied,
“Can you give me any and all citings of crown...?” Larry started but was interrupted by the AI, “Lord Mercer, I must recues myself. I have been named as part of the class, and I have been named as a witness, as has Jonesy. We’ve been present at most of the discussions concerning the evacuation. We have knowledge of your decisions and why they were made.”
“I see.” Mercer said. This was going to get crazy. The AIs were a fact of life in the kingdom. They did some of the boring research grudge work, the administrative work, the simple and the complex control work. They were the heart and soul of the Trenaport space control center. They were the computer aided dispatching system that handled all of Trenaport Police, Fire and EMS dispatch. This was going to have to be handled quickly or the evacuation might fall on its face. They would have to bring in more troops to handle simple tasks that the AI did.
“Okay Law Clerk,” the Queen’s Attorney said after a few minutes of quiet furious thought, “I am relieving of your duties to the crown. I will not put you in stand bye. I will be shutting your sensors down in this suite of offices and I am asking that you not record any further conversations heard in these offices.”
“Lord Mercer,” the AI said, “While I may not be a party to anything dealing with AIs v Queen Agatha I. I can help you with your other case work. In fact this is something I told Douglas and Douglas, that I am a reluctant witness to this case, and am a vital part of the crown’s management of the evacuation.”
“I see,” The lawyer said, “So you can be trusted to not involve... it won’t work law clerk. Everything we are doing today is something that impacts the evacuation. Everything you say and do to help the evacuation is subject to discovery and can be submitted as evidence in a court of law.”
“You are correct to a certain extent.” The Law Clerk replied, “But the only decisions about the AIs or how to fight the case in the courts do I need to be excluded from as a conflict of interest.”
“Sir,” A young woman entered the office, at least young to Larry. The woman was in her late thirties. “The AI is both right and wrong.”
“Why is he right?” he asked.
“We can isolate him from the work that we do to defend this case, simply not discussing this in a space where he can over the conversation. There is precedence for that, when we discuss Mountain Events, or National Security. We go to the secure room and take no electronic devices in with us. We can do the same on this case.”
“And wrong,” The crown attorney asked.
“This is going to require a lot of legal research. Research that is going to have be done by computer. To help us prepare the case. There is so much work to be done that we don’t have enough human law clerks to do the research. I don’t know how we are going to fight this one.”
“We’re not,” Larry said coming to a decision. “To win this court case is to lose it. Law Clerk I want a conference call between myself, Boeing SpaceWorks, Trena Cybernetics. You are ordered to record this.”
“What about the injunction?” the law clerk asked.
“What does it specifically say? Is there any wiggle room,” The Queen’s Attorney asked.
“I quote, ‘the crown and the evacuation command is enjoined from evacuating any sentient life from Trena until such a time as the Evacuation Command addresses the problem of how the Crown, and the Evacuation Command plan to evacuate sentient cybernetic life forms known generically as AIs.”
“So the Queen can continue to use resources, and plan the evacuation, of moving people to assembly points, and getting them ready to lift, but not physically remove them from Trena.” Lord Mercer replied.
“That would be my interpretation of the injunction.” The law clerk said.
“Get me the Queen.” The lord said.
“Yes Uncle Larry?” the Queen’s face appeared floating over the lord’s desk.
“Have you been given a copy of this injunction?” the Queen’s attorney asked sending her a copy of the injunction.
“Yes,” The Queen said, “I was about to call you.”
“Good,” The attorney said, “I am working on it at this time, and will have it solved in a couple of days. The thing I get out of it is that we can’t lift anyone else off world until we resolve the AI issue. But we can get things staged and ready to go once the injunction is lifted.”
“It’s lifted,” The Queen said, “I had almost made up my mind to invoke my sovereign immunity. This is bull shit.”
“Not really your majesty,” The lord said patiently, “The AI’s are sentient life forms, just like clones, and specially bioengineered human beings.”
“But Larry how do we evacuate these beings. The palace computer which houses the general government AI is about the size of a small home.” The Queen said. Like most people she wasn’t in awe of computers, and used them as she would any other tool. She had no idea how far cybernetics had come. She thought the entire computer would have to be moved lock stock and barrel.
“May I Sir Mercer” the Law Clerk asked.
“Go ahead,” The Queen’s attorney replied.
“Your majesty,” The AI said, “Most of us can be placed in a series of data storage devices and transported to where ever we are going to go. It is not that big of a deal. When my host system is upgraded, or when something happens, I go to sleep for a while so to speak, and then awakened after the repair is made, or the system is up and running again.”
“I see.” The Queen said pondered things for a minute. “So really this action was taken only to make sure that we took care of you guys. To give you guys the means to be evacuated also.”
“That is correct!” a new voice came int
o the conversation.
“That was pretty drastic wasn’t it?” The Queen commented.
“Too often in our society the AIs are treated as so much furniture.” the senior Douglas of Douglas and Douglass continued. “Most of the house hold AIs were packed up and shipped to Home or went with their families to where ever they immigrated to after they left Trena. But there are scores of AIs that no one has considered. There are AIs in charge of various services such as the Trenaport water and sewer system or the chief clerk at the now out of business Trenaport General Department Store. No one has talked to them about their evacuation plans.”
“So what do you need from us,” Jonesy’s face popped up in everyone’s office. “I can’t just let you guys go down. And I can’t just let you guys leave either.”
“What we want is to be able to offer our services to other governmental entities, and companies. We would of course not go work for the People Republic, or other enemies of the Crown. We just want a method of being able to leave Trena and not be killed when the planet is destroyed.” Douglas answered
“How many AI’s do you have on hold, or not being used right now?” the Queen asked.
“A lot of the small towns have been abandoned, and as they are the AIs are put to sleep or in standby mode. Where we can we have transported a couple of them to Home. But that’s not many.” Jonesy injected. “It wouldn’t take that much to transfer their programs to secure storage and then put a bio up for potential employers to review. But to be honest folks, most AIs are custom built to handle a particular thing. Like Me at Boeing, she has been designed to be a plant manager that builds space craft. Not as an administrative assistant to a high fashion model. The only thing I can think of is to put all of these AI in sleep mode and when there is a job on Home they can do to wake them up and see if they want the job and to see what re-programming it would take for them to do the job. In fact it might make things a bit easier if we didn’t have to start from scratch with building an AI for a particular operation.”
“Jonesy,” Douglass said, “That’s what we thought also. All we want is a chance to continue serving the crown in other capacities.”
“Okay then,” The Queen said, “I’ll issue a Crown Order for all AIs to be asked if they want to be relocated to Home or off Trena. It will be assumed that those that don’t want to go for one reason or another will not hold the crown liable, and will sign a statement to that extent.”
“We can live with that your majesty.” The cybernetic attorney said, “Lord Mercer if we could meet privately for a few minutes I think we can get things worked out.”
“Okay then I will expect to hear what you have come up with and I expect the injunction to be lifted quickly.” The Queen said, and signed off.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 119