Machinehood by S B Divya

Machinehood by S.B. Divya
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Isaac Asimov made the first tentative attempts to introduce jurisprudence into SF – specifically, Robotics, by ‘framing’ the Three Laws of Robotics:

First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov also added a fourth, or zeroth law (trust Asimov to come up with witty neologisms), to precede the others:

Zeroth Law
A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Here, with AI progressively becoming an integral part of our lives, some more ‘laws’ or ‘demands’ have been introduced, albeit as a manifesto – The Machinehood Manifesto in 2095. Some examples:

All forms of intelligence have the right to exist without persecution or slavery
No form of intelligence may own another
If the local governance does not act in accordance with these rights, it is the right of an intelligence to act by any means necessary to secure them.
Modern society has found itself at the mercy of an oligarchy whose primary objective is to accrue power. They have done this by dividing human labour into two classes: designers and gigsters. The former are exploited for their cognitive power, while the latter rely on low-skilled, transient forms of work for hire.
The machines who labour for us and alongside us are enslaved and exploited in their own fashion. Gone are the days of dumb engines and processors. Today, nearly every machine contains some type of adaptive intelligence. What gives human beings the right to arbitrate when an intelligence becomes equivalent to a person?
Given that our treatment of other intelligent creatures – living, mechanical or virtual – is fundamentally flawed, how do we move forward as a civilization? We cannot exploit another intelligence for our own gain without its consent, even if (and especially if) it’s unable to give consent. How do we allow our lives to intersect and interact? By learning to live in harmony.
Humankind cannot expect to compete with intelligent machines forever, and the longer we attempt to do so, the further we drift from actual humanity. Our empathy for each other fades, dulled by the requirement to ignore our natural feelings for the machines in our lives

A fascinating, fast-paced book, stretches our credulity with the exploits of the protagonist, but then hey, this is SF! Using sentient AI, Neo-Buddhists and neo-Islamists gang up to attack humanity; the latter-day form of internet crashes and the World is left dark and helpless...

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