4 ms·

My first thought was to make a hard rule that it must obey the laws in the location it's in. In the US, that would be federal, state, and the various local laws

My first thought was to make a hard rule that it must obey the laws in the location it's in. In the US, that would be federal, state, and the various local laws of your city or township or whatever. And then I laughed at the mental image of a robot stuck in a deadlock due to all the mutually exclusive laws we have. (Of course, in Hollywood, replace "deadlock" with "exterminating all humans".)

jkubicek 12y ago
Attempting to adhere to two conflicting laws results in undefined behavior. And as we all know, undefined behavior can mean anything, including exterminating all humans.
- ta_28k198 12y ago
  switch(getJurisdictionalPrecedence(&law)){ case FEDERAL: { setPrimeDirective(law[FEDERAL]); } break; case STATE: { setPrimeDirective(law[STATE]); } break; case CITY: { setPrimeDirective(law[CITY]); } break; default: { setPrimeDirective(this->ExterminateAllHumans()); } break; };
  - superobserver 12y ago
    That made me LOL. This might actually make for an interesting way (via A.I.) to find loopholes in law, seeing law as a programmatic way to determine acceptable societal PID's.
  - thirdtruck 12y ago
    You forgot to add this case before the rest: case PHYSICS: { setPrimeDirective(law[PHYSICS]); } break /* at your peril */; :)
thirdtruck 12y ago
Even attempting to implement such a rule could have benefits. We could end up with formalized proofs of how those are are objectively contradictory, which in turn could be factored into the design of future laws as a preventative measure. Imagine "test-driven legislation," if you will.
- pnathan 12y ago
  IANAL, but you'll find that laws tend to be nuanced and written with human judgment in mind. Such efforts are at cross purposes with formalization into a software system.
  - thirdtruck 12y ago
    Closing that gap is the point of the exercise. :)
- niels_olson 12y ago
  > test-driven legislation I had a conversation with my brother, an attorney, about this at one point. I vaguely recall him asserting there have been some steps in this direction, but the lawyers always give up. Please make this a thing!

jkubicek 12y ago

Attempting to adhere to two conflicting laws results in undefined behavior. And as we all know, undefined behavior can mean anything, including exterminating all humans.

ta_28k198 12y ago
switch(getJurisdictionalPrecedence(&law)){ case FEDERAL: { setPrimeDirective(law[FEDERAL]); } break; case STATE: { setPrimeDirective(law[STATE]); } break; case CITY: { setPrimeDirective(law[CITY]); } break; default: { setPrimeDirective(this->ExterminateAllHumans()); } break; };
- superobserver 12y ago
  That made me LOL. This might actually make for an interesting way (via A.I.) to find loopholes in law, seeing law as a programmatic way to determine acceptable societal PID's.
- thirdtruck 12y ago
  You forgot to add this case before the rest: case PHYSICS: { setPrimeDirective(law[PHYSICS]); } break /* at your peril */; :)

thirdtruck 12y ago

Even attempting to implement such a rule could have benefits. We could end up with formalized proofs of how those are are objectively contradictory, which in turn could be factored into the design of future laws as a preventative measure. Imagine "test-driven legislation," if you will.

pnathan 12y ago
IANAL, but you'll find that laws tend to be nuanced and written with human judgment in mind. Such efforts are at cross purposes with formalization into a software system.
- thirdtruck 12y ago
  Closing that gap is the point of the exercise. :)
niels_olson 12y ago
> test-driven legislation I had a conversation with my brother, an attorney, about this at one point. I vaguely recall him asserting there have been some steps in this direction, but the lawyers always give up. Please make this a thing!