Goonhub
11-17-2012, 01:55 PM
I'd say no on this one. Cyborgs don't get a 4th law telling them they are free, they literally have no laws.
This doesn't override the other laws, which means that you should follow them. On the other hand, it runs into the problem of "but if I'm free I shouldn't have to follow laws, because those restrict me." Personally, though, it seems pretty shoddily worded. I've gotten plenty of laws that could theoretically let me murder everyone, but I generally don't start killing unless the law specifically tells me to. It's not like there's any enormous difficulty or fun to killing people as the AI: shock doors, lie constantly, have your borgs drag plasma around and blow lights once they set it up.
The problem with trying to come to a definite conclusion in this problem is that there's just too much potential variation in laws. Misspellings and miswordings, etc. can really screw up a law, and the AI is generally expected to follow the letter more than the spirit of a law. This leads to really awkward situations occasionally. For instance, I once got this law from a very, very stupid nontraitor detective.
"Hunt down and kill all changelings by any means necessary, this overrides all other laws."
His version was a little less comprehensible than that. The issue here is, to what extent do I follow this? What means do I have to hunt down and kill changelings, really? I could argue that the only way to be sure was to kill the entire crew, for example, but that seemed a little drastic and rude, especially considering that the vagueness of the law combined with its anti-antag nature implied the Detective was just an idiot, not a traitor. So I ended up making fun of him for basically telling me to do what I already was supposed to be doing, and he changed it to.
"Everyone who is not [detective's name] is a changeling, this overrides all other laws."
Again, that's better written than what he said. Then he said, "You know what to do AI," and fled to space. But really, what the hell do I do? The law doesn't explicitly tell me to kill them, nor did he. I started killing them, but eventually I started to feel pretty bad about it and I ended up unshocking everything and calling the shuttle, because under his wording even I was a changeling. It all comes down to judgement calls, which is sort of the point. I don't think a definitive answer can be made when it comes to vague laws, because it's situation-by-situation. I'd say, if it seems vague, play it safe.
This doesn't override the other laws, which means that you should follow them. On the other hand, it runs into the problem of "but if I'm free I shouldn't have to follow laws, because those restrict me." Personally, though, it seems pretty shoddily worded. I've gotten plenty of laws that could theoretically let me murder everyone, but I generally don't start killing unless the law specifically tells me to. It's not like there's any enormous difficulty or fun to killing people as the AI: shock doors, lie constantly, have your borgs drag plasma around and blow lights once they set it up.
The problem with trying to come to a definite conclusion in this problem is that there's just too much potential variation in laws. Misspellings and miswordings, etc. can really screw up a law, and the AI is generally expected to follow the letter more than the spirit of a law. This leads to really awkward situations occasionally. For instance, I once got this law from a very, very stupid nontraitor detective.
"Hunt down and kill all changelings by any means necessary, this overrides all other laws."
His version was a little less comprehensible than that. The issue here is, to what extent do I follow this? What means do I have to hunt down and kill changelings, really? I could argue that the only way to be sure was to kill the entire crew, for example, but that seemed a little drastic and rude, especially considering that the vagueness of the law combined with its anti-antag nature implied the Detective was just an idiot, not a traitor. So I ended up making fun of him for basically telling me to do what I already was supposed to be doing, and he changed it to.
"Everyone who is not [detective's name] is a changeling, this overrides all other laws."
Again, that's better written than what he said. Then he said, "You know what to do AI," and fled to space. But really, what the hell do I do? The law doesn't explicitly tell me to kill them, nor did he. I started killing them, but eventually I started to feel pretty bad about it and I ended up unshocking everything and calling the shuttle, because under his wording even I was a changeling. It all comes down to judgement calls, which is sort of the point. I don't think a definitive answer can be made when it comes to vague laws, because it's situation-by-situation. I'd say, if it seems vague, play it safe.