“People, sure.” Janet waved a hand toward the four robots in the comer. “But how about dedicated idealists?”
Ariel was so startled she dropped the light. It clattered to the floor and went out, but by the time she bent down to retrieve it, it was glowing again, repaired.
“Something wrong, dear?” Janet asked her.
“You’d let one of them be in charge of a city?”
“Yes, I would.”
“And you’d live there?”
“Sure. They’re not dangerous.”
“Not dangerous! Look at what-”
“Lucius made the right decision, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Maybe,” Ariel said. “What worries me is the thought process he went through to make it.” She clicked off the light; Derec wasn’t working on Basalom anymore anyway. He was staring at Ariel and Janet as if he’d never heard two people argue before. Ariel ignored his astonished look and said, “The greatest good for the greatest number of people. That could easily translate to ‘the end justifies the means., Are you seriously suggesting that’s a viable operating principle?”
“We’re not talking an Inquisition here,” Janet said.
“But what if we were? What if the greatest good meant killing forty-nine percent of the population? What if it meant killing just one? Are you going to stand there and tell me it’s all right to kill even one innocent person in order to make life easier for the rest?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not what we’re talking about at all. “
It took conscious effort for Ariel to lower her voice. “It sure is. Eventually that sort of situation is going to come up, and it scares the hell out of me to think what one of those robots would decide to do about it. “
Janet pursed her lips. “Well,” she said, “why don’t we ask them, then?”
Lucius looked for the magnetic containment vessel he was sure must be waiting for him somewhere. Not finding one, he looked for telltale signs of a laser cannon hidden behind one of the walls. He didn’t find that, either, but he knew there had to be something he couldn’t see, some way of instantly immobilizing him if he answered wrong. The situation was obviously a test, and the price of failure was no doubt his life.
He’d been roused out of comlink fugue and immediately barraged with questions, the latest of which was the oddest one he’d ever been asked to consider, even by his siblings.
“Let me make sure I understand you,” he said. “The person in question is not a criminal? He has done no wrong? Yet his death would benefit the entire population of the city?”
“That’s right.”
Ariel’s stress indicators were unusually high, but Lucius risked his next question anyway. “How could that be?”
“That’s not important. The important thing is the philosophical question behind it. Would you kill that person in order to make life better for everyone else?”
“I would have to know how it would make their lives better. “
“We’re talking hypothetically,” Janet said. “Just assume it does.”
Do you have any idea what the underlying intent is here?Lucius asked via comlink. Perhaps it was cheating, but no one had forbidden him to consult the other robots. A pity Basalom was not on line; his experiences with Janet might provide a clue to the proper answer.
Neither Adam nor Eve answered, but Mandelbrot did. Yesterday I overheard Ariel and Wolruf discussing the possible effect of a robot city on Wolruf’s world. Wolruf was concerned that the use of robots would strip her people of the ability to think and act for themselves. Perhaps this question grew out of that concern.
I think there is more to it than that,Lucius sent. Central, can you replay the conversation that led up to this question?
The robots received the recorded conversation within milliseconds, but it took them considerably longer to sort it all out. At last Lucius said, I believe it is clear now. They are concerned about the moral implications of unwilling sacrifice.
Agreed,the others all said.
Do we have any precedent to go upon?
Possibly,Eve said. There could have been innocent people on Aranimas’ s ship. We know that Aranimas took slaves.Yet destroying it to save a city full of Kin was still a proper solution.
That doesn’t quite fit the question we are asked to consider,said Adam. A better analogy might be to ask what if the ship had been crewed only by innocent people?
Innocent people would not have been in that situation alone,Lucius replied.
Mandelbrot said, Aranimas could easily have launched a drone with hostages on board.
Then the hostages would have to be sacrificed,Lucius said immediately. They would be no more innocent than the people on the ground.
Agreed,the other robots said.
Perhaps I begin to see the moral dilemma here,Lucius said. What if the people on the ground were somewhat less innocent?
How so?Eve asked.
Suppose they in some way deliberately attracted Aranimas, knowing that he was dangerous?
That would be foolish.
Humans often do foolish things. Suppose they did. Would they then deserve their fate?
This is a value judgment,Adam said.
We have been called upon to make one,Lucius replied.
Unfortunately so. Using your logic, then, we would have to conclude that the concept of individual value requires that humans be held responsible for their actions. The inhabitants of the city would therefore be responsible for their own act and thus deserve their fate. If the hostage were truly innocent and the city inhabitants were not, then the city would have to be sacrificed.
I agree,said Lucius. Eve? Mandelbrot?
I agree also,Eve said.
I wish we had never been asked this question,Mandelbrot sent. I reluctantly agree in this specific case, but I still don’t believe it answers Ariel’s question. What if the death of the innocent hostage merely improved the lives of equally innocent townspeople? To use the Aranimas analogy, what if the hostage-carrying ship aimed at the city were filled with cold virus instead of plutonium?Would it still be acceptable to destroy it?
No,Lucius said. Colds are only an inconvenience except in extremely rare cases.
A worse disease. then. One that cripples but does not kill.
How crippling? How widespread would the effects be? Would food production suffer and thus starve people later? Would the survivors die prematurely of complications brought about by bitterness at their loss? We must know these things as well in order to make a decision.
Then we must give a qualified answer,said Mandelbrot.
Yes. Wish me luck,Lucius said.
Perhaps two seconds had passed while the dialog went on. Aloud, Lucius said to Ariel, “We have considered three specific cases. In the case of a city in mortal peril, if the person in question were not completely innocent in the matter, but the rest of the city’ s inhabitants were, then the person would have to be sacrificed. However, if the person were completely innocent but the city inhabitants were not, then the city’s welfare could not take precedence in any condition up to and including the death of the entire city population. Bear in mind that a single innocent occupant of the city would change the decision. In the last case, where an innocent person’s death would only benefit the quality of life in the city, we have not reached a conclusion. We believe it would depend upon how significant the quality change would be, but such change would have to threaten the long-term viability of the populace before it would even be a consideration. “