CASE 14 (Part 2): e-Creatures
DIVERGENCES:
Is it mobile and smart? Autonomous in choices and mobility? Self- and morally-aware? Defined by a sovereignty to be a citizen with legal standing?
When all four conditions are met, am I as designer, maker, or operator less likely liable for damage or cost? Organisms are economic, acting with intent. Else, it’s just an actant – my agent, and I’m liable to compense for reasonably foreseeable consequences.
Citizenship is definable for humans and corporations being physical and locatable.
But that assumes nation-players subscribe to same constructs. Clever countries offer virtual citizenship, freeing you of constraints on wealth or activity. Is it any surprise a digital blockchain Bitnation emerges?
Access and mobility enabled ancient England to unify. But those same roads and the dark forests are roamed by sinister brigands. On the internet, a digital entity can roam on open, deep, or dark levels. So, too, the weaponized agents: digital assassins and terrorists.
At the edges, communities draw into baileys behind moats and drawbridges. Warily alert for the drone of newer and better malevolent creatures.
