E47. "Echo" - What natural rights does a human in an artificial body deserve?

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Martha dies. She wakes up three years later with her consciousness put into the body of an android. She did not ask for this, it simply happened. She is forced to accept that Martha is dead, and that she must live out her new life as Echo. As an android, she has limited rights. She cannot see her former family or friends. She can only work for minimum wage. She cannot interact with any technology. She cannot go to the same location more than twice in a week. She cannot meet other androids for prolonged periods of time. She is not even allowed to terminate her own existence. Her only friend is a journalist who is trying to get the “android story” out. He does this by using an override switch that paralyzes Echo and allows him to download her complete data set since her inception.

DISCUSSION: Story brings up wonderful points about what rights you are born with and what it is about you that earns you those rights. Is it your body, or something else? Is it inevitable that there are always lower class people to do the hard work and have limited rights? She was perfectly happy to take rights away from the androids until she was one. Even the person that is helping her takes her memories without her permission. The question we are wholly not qualified to answer is, when is AI “alive?”

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E46. "Sienna's Monster" - How do you escape the monster inside you?

in ,

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Sienna is living with a “Monster,” in this case, her father. He does not hit her, but he does yell, and rant, and breaks things. Sienna grows up always on edge that the “monster” will lash out at her. Over time, she builds up equally toxic defense mechanisms. She learns to yell back and to be as hate-filled as her father. This all changes when she goes to college and meets her roommate Clara. Clara does not lash out. She does not accuse. She does not go into conversations prepared for battle. She listens, she is empathetic. She does not “keep score” in their friendship. Sienna assumes Clara has an alternative motive, and continues to be skeptical. Eventually, Sienna comes to see Clara for what she is, a decent human being. Armed with her new knowledge, Sienna heads home for Thanksgiving and confronts her father. Her father credits himself with “breaking the cycle” and being a good father by not physically abusing Sierra that way his father was to him. Sienna is frustrated, and resolves to never speak to him again. Over the Christmas holiday, Sienna decides to visit Clara’s family. Sienna’s mother asks if she, and only she, can come visit. Sienna reluctantly agrees. Her mother arrives, father in tow. The story ends with Sienna in jail, having killed her father.

DISCUSSION: Interesting story that brings up outstanding questions about the cycle of abuse and what is “getting better.” Sienna’s father is better than his father was to him, and it would be hard to expect much more from him outside of him independently deciding to get help. We already see Sienna taking on the horrible traits of her father and, were it not for her roommate, would probably end up just like her father. Perhaps everyone is the hero in their own story?

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E30. "Farewell, Odysseus" - Would you get a human as a pet?

in ,

Named “Top 15 Podcast” for 2020!

STORY SUMMARY: Set in the future, the Dios are a group of super humans who, because of having the wealth over generations to make mental and physical enhancements, are a different, and superior, race. Humans on earth sometimes agree to go to live on Mars with the Dios as their pets. The narrator is one such person, that is, until he starts to ask too many questions.

DISCUSSION: Great world building. A longer and more complete story than we usually do. Perhaps this is a warning, not about keeping people as pets, but about the long term effects of the wealthy having access to technology that allows them to further separate themselves from the poor over generations. What level of difference in ability makes it okay to keep another species as a pet? Maybe the differences in the story aren’t as great as the Dios want them to seem? Is this slavery? Is it fair that those on earth are so poor this is their only way out? Is that the crime here? Is this different than having a “sugar-daddy” that takes care of you?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

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