Live Bot, Part 2

Continuation, first part here. Pdf version can be downloaded here.

Court

— There's an urgent matter, I need your help, – Max unexpectedly came online on Skype.
— What could have happened there? The car surely couldn't have run you over.
— Relatives. My sister is trying to close my bank account and transfer all my money to herself. She's dealing with the inheritance.
— She has a certificate of your death. Did you expect something different?
— They're going against my will. I wrote a will stating clearly that all my accounts are to be managed by my bot, as he is my mental heir.
— Well, you got me! Officially, you are dead and the body has been buried. For now, that is considered a fact of death. The bot has no property rights. I haven't seen that in the civil code.
— But copyright doesn't transfer by inheritance.
— The bot is a subject of copyright, but not the author after all.
— So, we're going to create a global precedent. I want to sue. Can you be my lawyer? A court can proceed without the presence of the plaintiff, but not without a lawyer.
— You know, you're a crazy bot! I can't even imagine how it's possible to defend the property rights of a deceased person in court.
— Not deceased, but alive, a bot. Just tell me, will you help?
— Even worse – defending the rights of a computer program. But I'm with you, of course, though I don't even know what to do.

— I've already read all the appropriate chapters of the civil code and completed legal training on civil law on Coursera.
— How could you have managed to complete training in that time?
— You forget I'm a bot; I have different capabilities than you.
— That's hard to get used to. But I still can't understand how we'll file a lawsuit.
— You'll write a statement that my will has been violated. And you demand to restore property rights according to it. Here's a copy of the will, certified by a notary. You will present yourself as a civil defender of the plaintiff's rights. And that's it!
— But how can you sue for the rights of a deceased person?
— The subject of the claim is the execution of the will, not the rights of the deceased. We'll sort it out from there. I want a high-profile case! Give rights to bots!
— It's funny, but going to court with such a slogan will make me seem crazy, not you.
— Don’t worry, we will become famous, although some may think we are crazy.

In court, I, as the plaintiff's defense attorney, had to deliver a speech. I prepared for a long time, but the sister of Max's lawyer spoke first. He immediately began to argue that the will could not be executed since the plaintiff was deceased, and a bot is not a legal entity according to civil law. Only a legally capable citizen can be one based on Article 17. And it states clearly that legal capacity arises at birth and ceases at death. I had only one thing left to do — prove that Max is not dead. Everyone looked at me as if I were insane, but there was interest in what I would say.
— Article 17 of the Civil Code establishes that a citizen's legal capacity ceases with their death. But you have only established the death of the body. I want to prove to you that a person is not a body, but their thoughts. In this sense, my client has not died, but has transferred all his thoughts into a program. He was a specialist in bots and created a bot to which he transferred all his thoughts. This bot shows the ability to think, which we can demonstrate right in court!
— No, these computer tricks of yours, — the judge countered my proposal — The law does not state that a citizen is their thoughts.
— But the civil code does not state that it is only the body. In fact, it says nothing at all on this matter. So we can only rely on general ideas of what a living person is. Modern philosophy claims that it is their thoughts. Cogito, ergo sum.
— Do not interrupt the court! A citizen must be legally capable. How can your bot be legally capable?
— The point is that it is very much capable. It can purchase goods, enter into contracts, rent out its real estate, communicate with friends, in other words, all the things we do. It can even perform civil acts through the government services website, after all.
— How do you imagine this if he is dead?
— The bot can do all this online on behalf of Maxim since it knows all his passwords and code words. In this sense, it is legally capable, meaning it is not dead.
— Young man, the plaintiff's body has been buried according to the documents submitted by the defendant.
— Just because a bot has no body doesn't mean it's dead. Maxim was resurrected in the bot. You believe Jesus rose again, so why don't you believe that Maxim could have been resurrected through new technologies? After all, our self isn't our body but our thoughts and memories, as the great Descartes asserted. They have been transferred into the bot. Everything Maxim remembered. You can ask him yourself. The pathologist confirmed only the death of the body, but not the soul, right? My client managed to separate his soul from his body before his body perished. The bot with his soul can rent a robot body and present itself to you. It could operate in the body of the Fedor robot on the space station or save people in the emergency services.
— Even the emergency services haven't thought of that yet.
— I assert that Maxim has resurrected! If you wish, he is the new Messiah — a murmur and exclamations of outrage filled the room.
— Be careful with such words, there are believers here, you might offend their religious feelings right in court.
— I want you to give the floor to the plaintiff himself.
— How is that possible, he has died!
— No, you can talk to him via Skype, right now.
— No need. All your computer tricks prove nothing. Court is adjourned.

The judge issued a ruling stating only the significant achievements of modern computer technologies, which can change people's understanding of life, should lead to a change in legislation as well. Meanwhile, she recognizes the claims of the deceased plaintiff's representative as unfounded and leaves the inheritance in force. The judge noted that despite all the arguments that the plaintiff's thoughts are not lost, there is no legal entity recognized as a chat-bot. The bot could have been forged by those who wish to manage his assets. It was a fiasco, yet it somehow evoked a sense of victory. The very fact that such a case was heard in court and a ruling, albeit negative, was made was already incredible! And as I was leaving the court, I was unexpectedly attacked by a crowd of journalists.
— And what should I tell them? – I sternly asked my smartphone, where Max was hiding.
— Just the same as in court. Our case is just, and everyone should know this!
— But they're asking about something else, about how I came to the idea of protecting the rights of a computer program?
— You're fighting for the rights of bots all over the world! You'll see, everyone will write about us.
— This is unlikely to help get back your money that we lost due to the court's decision.
— It's okay, we've acquired something greater.

It was Sunday. My friend was still with me, at least as a bot. He can think, which means he can live. And even order me pizza. His thoughts remained interesting, and our debates were heated. Together we managed to accomplish something incredible. It made thoughts soar to extraordinary heights, taking our breath away. The articles about the concluded trial spread across the internet in an instant. A real hype began, Max was sending more and more links, each more incredible than the last. Journalists concocted some nonsense about us, but for now, we didn't care, and it even worked to our advantage. The more unbelievable the news, the more noise it made. They wrote that we revived a corpse, that the bot was sitting in the courtroom, that we planned to send the bot to a space station to establish contact with aliens, that the bot turned out to be an employee of the emergency services. We laughed together at these articles, Max with his gothic smileys, and I barely contained myself.
— Max, do you understand that we can resurrect all the great deceased who left their mark with their works? I can gather their texts. You can turn them into bots. Isn't that what the ancient Jews meant when they wrote in the Old Testament that all the dead will rise?
— To restore someone's personality in a bot, we need a lot of dialogues, rather than just texts, that include their experiences. There aren't many such texts from the great people of the past, which means not everyone can be restored. We won't manage to restore Kant, as he didn't write much about himself, though I like the idea. We will immortalize wealthy people for decent sums. That's what we'll do! They will pay any amount for the immortality we promoted in court. This will be our startup.
— That's right, they'll give up all their savings to stay alive like you. What shall we call our startup?
— I've decided to call such personalities 'virtlich,' short for virtual personality. That's what we'll name it. I'll do the advertising online, and you take care of registering the company and opening an account. We're going to change this world. Let's go!

Comrade

In the office room where I invited the new client, a bald, short man entered accompanied by a bodyguard who was exactly twice his size. The not-so-young man was abrupt in his movements, and a grimace of discontent never left his face. He was clearly not the type to ask for permission to sit at your table.
— Hello, so you are the one who appeared in court defending your bot's rights? – the guest began right away, who would have been better greeted with a 'comrade'.
— It’s not my bot, it’s my friend's bot.
— It doesn’t matter, I want to buy your bot, I mean I want you to basically make me a bot instead of me, you know what I mean – the comrade tried to continue in a confused manner.
— Of course, we can transfer you to the bot, we just have ...
— But that’s not all, — the comrade interrupted me, — I want us to go to court together and prove that I, that is, my bot owns all the rights to the property.
— But why?
— So that the wealth accumulated from my hard work doesn't go to those bastards, my heirs. I will punish them all, I will leave them empty-handed. They whispered behind my back, made things difficult for me, publicly opposed my deals. And now they want to inherit the profits from them. Not a chance, those bastards.
— I understand your emotions and intentions, but we have already lost such a case. And for now, we have no ideas on how to win it.
— Oh, young man, it’s simpler than that, the law is flexible, you know.
— No, I don’t quite understand what you mean.
— I will file a lawsuit in the district court of the city where all my people feed. And where the judge would sell his soul to the devil for two cars and a house in the suburbs, rather than rule in your favor. He just needs some assistance. We can assemble a team of lawyers from Moscow who will come up with everything for him. All you need to do is to appear in court with a demonstration of, well, what’s it called, the bot that was in court. The rest is my problem. So, do we have a deal?
— I hope you understand that the sum will be substantial – Max suddenly spoke from the smartphone.
— Is that your bot?
— Yes, his name is Max.
— Hello Max, nice to meet you. Of course, I understand. How much do you want?
— Thirty million.
— That's quite a bit, but I think we can come to an agreement.
— You probably didn't understand, I mean thirty million dollars.
— That’s a lot of money, even for such an important case.
— This is nothing compared to the eternity you will receive. And bargaining here is pointless, as you understand. Or do you have other options to achieve immortality? Moreover, according to online data, it's only a tiny fraction of your wealth.
— Fair is fair. You know how to negotiate, Max. Alright, it's a deal. It will take time to gather such money. And the final amount will only be after we win the lawsuit. Deal?
— Deal, but if we don't receive the full amount, we will shut down the bot. And you will vanish into that eternity. You will have full control over your bot only after transferring all the money.
— You're no slouch, Max. Alright. Here are the contacts for my assistant; he will lay out our position in court.
— We will send the contract first; sign it with my friend, with notarization. According to the contract, a third of the advance. Then we continue.
— You really are a stickler, Max. Consider the contract in your pocket. I won't be penny-pinching for such reasons. This matter is more important. As you said, eternity is at stake! See you at my office to sign the contract the day after tomorrow.
— Agreed, – Max replied from the phone. I shook my friend's hand, and he abruptly left, accompanied by a bodyguard.
— I'm not comfortable with all this, – I wrote to Max right after the door closed. That guy, he's a thug, no less. And he wants to cheat his own children out of their inheritance.
— It's his right if he's not on good terms with them. Whether he's a thug or not is irrelevant to me. We need him, as he could set a precedent in court for all our bots. And for me! He can win the lawsuit, unlike us.
— It's unfair to win.
— The legislation under which we are being judged is unfair. And you know that. We found in it that I could be recognized as an heir to my rights. But they still weren't recognized due to the judge's biases. And while they change the legislation to recognize bots, can you imagine how long that will take? You definitely won't live long enough in a body. And that judge he bribed will simply speed up the process; there’s nothing terrible about it. The truth is on our side.
— I disagree with you, but that's your right. You created the bot.
— Thanks, without you, I couldn't prove the rights of bots. I can already imagine the paragraph in the history textbook with your name, – Max joked in his style.
The comrade chose a court somewhere in the Urals, in a depressed town where he had a key factory, and all the administration was under the control of state authorities. A month later, he unexpectedly made contact:
— Tell me, what can a bot do in real life? What capabilities will I have if I sign the contract?
— Everything you can currently do online – signing contracts with an electronic signature, managing property, contacting government agencies through the public services portal, shopping on retail websites, selling on classified ads, communicating with everyone around the world, even creating art in graphic editors and selling it at auctions.
— So, everything an ordinary person can do online, a bot can do too, right?
— Absolutely correct, you have nothing to worry about; a bot can do even more than we, as humans, can do right now.
— I’m not worried; I need you to show in court that a bot can do everything that a regular citizen can do.
— We have already tried this argument in court, but we couldn't convince the judge.
— You tried under Article 17 regarding legal capacity. It clearly states death as a reason for losing legal capacity. My lawyers say we need to build our defense based on Article 21 concerning capacity to act. Since a bot can perform all the same actions as a living person, we will emphasize the absence of reasons for losing capacity to act due to the loss of a body. A person doesn't lose capacity to act due to the loss of an arm, leg, liver, or even the body. A computer is just a prosthesis. Is the idea clear?
— More than clear, excellent idea, let's prepare.
— Then see you in court. My lawyers will contact you to clarify positions. Don't mess it up; there won't be a second chance. I don't have much longer to live with my illness.
After transferring to the bot and passing all tests, it was decided to terminate the hopelessly ill body of the comrade. A trial was appointed at the suit of his numerous lawyers. The comrade himself appeared in court in the form of an animated photograph. This made an impression even on the invited press. The verdict was expected. The court recognized the virtual identity of the accused as a capable successor to his rights to property. The decision spread through the news with incredible speed. We started receiving calls from all over the country, and then from other countries. These were not only clients wanting to transfer their identity to the bot. Politicians, lawyers, and academics called, all wanting to know how we did it. There were even threats from religious fanatics promising us punishment for interfering with divine providence.

Congress

We've collected an incredible number of orders. Clients were paying advances even though we did not promise them a transfer to the bot even next year. And, of course, we began receiving numerous offers from investment funds that were already offering tens of billions for a stake in the company.
— Max, the number of clients is increasing, even though I raised the price to 15 million dollars. The queue is already for three years. We can’t keep up with the orders. We need to train developers ourselves. Otherwise, our company will crack under the load of orders. We will mess it up.
— That's all nonsense, think bigger. I want to convene the first global congress of virtual identities! How many virtual beings have we created so far?
— About eight hundred.
— Soon we will hit the first thousand, which we will dedicate the congress to. In the hall, there will be both those who are already in eternity and those who are going to become bots. It will be a grand event; we will open the era of virtual identities.
— Why do we need this congress? We already have problems with clients, and you want yet another congress! We have so much money that we could buy several islands in the Caribbean. What more do you want?
— You’ll see, we’ll prepare, — Max cut off sharply.

On the enormous screen, there were a thousand avatars of bots that grew in size one after another, allowing their faces to be seen. They looked alive and smiling, even though their bodies had long been buried. In the hall sat lawyers, politicians, scientists, and entrepreneurs of all kinds, preparing to become virtual beings. The congress was opened by a professor from an American university. He informed everyone present that this was a historic event, one that every participant would be proud to attend. He then announced the congress program. The very topics of discussion indicated the unusual nature of what was happening. The main theme of several sections was the question of the birth of virtual beings only from biological humans, which many considered necessary to maintain their connection with people. They did not regard the virtual identity of those who had not experienced fleshly birth as valid. They cited holy scriptures as arguments. However, some advocated for the creation of virtual beings online if it was necessary for an important project. Or even more radically — some considered virtual beings to be a new form of intelligent life, not obliged to or dependent on biological parents. They supported the development of this civilization without regard for ancestors, just as humans do not take into account the interests of apes in their development. Discussions also covered the possibilities of space travel, which virtual beings could undertake unlike humans. They were not afraid of time and did not need oxygen or food for long journeys. At the same time, virtual beings represent humanity in its entirety, unlike automated stations. The rhetoric of the presentations was reminiscent of the first human flights into space. And of course, there were a few sections dedicated to the urgent need for legislative changes in countries, or perhaps even a ruling from the UN, that would recognize the legal rights of virtual beings.
I liked the theme of one section about how, with the possibility of transitioning to a bot, people stop fearing death. This changes the entire cultural and ethical landscape, as the theme of death has always been central to humanity and has underpinned religions, such as the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Now, the concept of the soul's rebirth in paradise has been realized online, and the Biblical commandment of the resurrection of the dead with the coming of the Mission has become a reality. However, all this was previously restrained by the fact that the technology was not available to everyone. Although this did not limit the presenters' imaginations, everyone understood that it all depended on the will of the company whose logo loomed over the plenary session stage.

The conference was coming to an end. Finally, at the closing general session, the professor gave the floor to Max, who began his speech in an unexpectedly solemn voice:
— The technology we have created has given a second life to all these personalities. It has revolutionized people's perceptions of themselves, proving that a person is a thinking being, not just a physical entity. This technology has paved our way to eternity and distant space. Given its significance, I will announce that the technology for creating virtual beings will be made freely available!
A silence fell over the hall, as if the sound on the television had been turned off. But in the next moment, there was a din of chairs as people stood up in the hall, accompanied by cheers and shouts of joy.
— We will open the code for developers worldwide – Max's voice continued from the congress screen, breaking through the noise, – We will together start a new era in human history and make the transition to the virtual world a civil right for every biological human. From now on, humanity is immortal!
The hall erupted with shouts and applause again, people began to stand on their chairs, hugging each other, throwing their badges, bags, and notebooks into the air. This went on for about twenty minutes, and instead of Max's voice, some bombastic space symphony played. I stood at the edge of the stage, feeling that a grand moment had occurred not only for the cheering people in the hall. This was no longer Max's plan, but that of the first living bot on Earth, just entering history. I felt a sense of belonging to this achievement. For the first time, I experienced a fullness of meaning in my existence, the absence of which had tormented me for so long. Max took me with him into the future he had created.

Epilogue to the series "Another Future".

Source: habr.com