Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

AGI status

6 posts / 0 new
Last post
Maskin Maskin's picture
AGI status
I know I've read about this, or at least I'm pretty sure but I'm suffering a bit from information overload. Is there a list/chart/chapter/paragraph somwhere that lists the civil and legal status of AGIs, and if not can someone point me to the book(s) and pages/chapters I should read or just tell me? In the main book I can read "Some habitats have even outlawed AGIs or subject them to strict restrictions, forcing such infolife to hide their true natures or illegally darkcast to enter habitats or stations." That is very generic though. I know that in the Jovian Republic they are illegal (without rights) and in Anarchist space (including Titanian Commonwealth) AGIs have full legal and civil rights as much as anyone does in that part of space, but I'm a bit fuzzy on what the situation is on Mars (PC), Venus (Morningstar Constellation) and Moon (Lunar-Lagrange Alliance).
Transhuman Mind
DivineWrath DivineWrath's picture
I think things were set up in
I think things were set up in such a way to make the game sandbox-ish. At some point, the GMs have write stuff up. I think it would be too much work to expect the devs to detail all the habitats (there has to be over a thousand of them), but it shouldn't be too difficult to identify regional differences. I think AGIs are legal in most regions except the Jovian Junta. Unfortunately I don't know of a list that gives concrete answers to your questions. I would very much like to get a list of regional laws and laws for sample habitats.
Maskin Maskin's picture
That would be nice, but I was
That would be nice, but I was more thinking of the general policy for the PC, Morningstar Constellation and Lunra-Lagrange Alliance. If you're an AGI can you travel freely in the PC/LLA/MC? Are there special laws and legislations? Job restrictions? Will you be closely watched and monitored? Do you have to work for an "owning" corporation? I seem to remember that the LLA do not tolerate AGIs, but I can't quite remember where I read that, and if so are AGIs evicted, arrested, destroyed? Same for PC and MC. Sure, I can figure it out on my own, but I'd like to keep to what is in the books as much as possible.
Transhuman Mind
Justin Alexander Justin Alexander's picture
This information is somewhat
This information is somewhat scattered, but the primary source would be page 48 of the core rulebook: The Planetary Consortium generally has anti-AGI laws. The anarchist communities on the outer fringe of the solar system are generally permissive of AGIs. Page 84 of Sunward specifies that AGIs are illegal in almost all LLA settlements (and even infomorphs are heavily restricted). The Jovians obviously don't tolerate them at all. I don't think Morningstar has had their attitudes explicitly spelled out. Sunward does suggest (pg. 42) that a lot of workers there are doing tasks that would have been done by AGIs before the Fall, which suggests that AGIs generally aren't available to do them. I'd peg them as being fairly equivalent to the PC, but possibly slightly more liberal. Rimward, pg. 91, says that AGIs have full citizenship rights in Titan. So, to break that down, you're looking at a spectrum that runs (from most severe limitations to least severe limitations): Jovians, LLA, Planetary Consortium, Morningstar Constellation, Titan, Autonomists. Reading between the lines and making a few inferences, we might draw up a set of general guidelines that looks like this: Jovian Republic: AGIs are subject to summary erasure. Anyone creating, aiding, or abetting an AGI is subject to severe criminal penalties, including the possibility of execution for treason. Lunar-Lagrange Alliance: AGIs are outlawed by most LLA communities; they will be banished or placed in cold storage. Hypercorps or individuals creating AGIs are subject to heavy fines. Planetary Consortium: Roughly 25% of PC polities ban AGIs completely (similar to the LLA). In other polities they are heavily regulated. AGIs are considered property by the Planetary Consortium and will never have citizenship rights. In addition to regulations by local polities, the Planetary Consortium as a whole has regulations governing the development and use of AGIs. Violations of these regulations are punished with heavy fines. Morningstar Constellation: Similar to the Planetary Consortium, but the regulatory oversight is significantly smaller and only 10% of Morningstar polities ban AGIs completely. (Very rare MC polities even grant AGIs citizenship, but citizenship in one Morningstar polity is no guarantee of your rights in another.) Conservative Independents: This isn't a specific political body, but a significant number of independent settlements (including some autonomist settlements) fall into this category. In these settlements, AGIs are considered full citizens but they sacrifice some of the normal rights of citizens. Most notably privacy: AGIs in these settlements will have their mesh access monitored; their morphs/hardware specs routinely audited; and may even have to go mandatory and intensive monitoring of their minds in order to detect the onset of a singularity event. They may even be legally forced to undergo psychosurgery in order to prevent it. AGIs visiting such settlements will also undergo such scans (and possibly surgery). Titan: AGIs are recognized as full citizens of the Commonweath and even benefit under Titan's "one body for every mind" policy. However, new AGIs can expect to undergo extensive monitoring and testing before achieving citizenship. (Optionally, a GM could easily decide that AGI citizens are still subject to heavy surveillance and sousveillance.) Autonomists: AGIs, infomorphs, synthmorphs, Factors, flats... Dude, we're all sentients, right? Don't bug them and they probably won't bug you. I welcome corrections. (Alternatively, given the paucity of specific information regarding the MC's approach to AGIs, you could easily have them behave like the Conservative Independents I describe above.)
Decivre Decivre's picture
To quickly summarize what
To quickly summarize what Justin is saying: the autonomists tend to be okay with AGI. Everyone else, not so much. Your life will be anything from persecution and limited rights to outright elimination, depending on the degree to which they hate you. Clarification: Titan and Extropia are both autonomist nations.
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
Maskin Maskin's picture
I always meant to get back to
I always meant to get back to this, but kept getting sidetracked, so let me just say thank you to all the good replies, but especially to Justin Alexander's taking the time to make a detailed list.
Transhuman Mind