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Reply Subj: Even more precisely... Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 at 02:05:31 am EDT (Viewed 631 times) | |||||||
Quote: There's one important distinction to the citizenship decision for Anna: It gives her citizenship, but no rights. The judge was fairly careful about that. It's possible a law might be passed that says yes, artificials can be citizens, but they don't have the same rights as humans.For Anna specifically, that's important because while she may not be handed the same rights as humans, she can't legally be treated as either property or a foreign combatant anymore. I don't think a judge is empowered to make that kind of distinction, to essentially write a new classification of citizenship. Being a US citizen means having the rights and responsibilities laid out in the Constitution. Now, it may be that granting her those rights is on hold via an injunction until the appeals have all run their course, a process that could take years. Legally, the government couldn't grab her and make her disappear, but neither would they have to recognize her full rights. Quote: Either way, though, it's going to create fallout simply because there are so many who want to maintain the status quo, and there are so many others who want change as long as it's someone on the "inside" who gets it first.I don't think it's a matter of who gets it first so much as who sets a lasting precedence. There is rarely if ever a popular vote to determine who is going to set off a social movement... circumstances thrust someone into the limelight, and history rolls with it. As noted by Hallie, Anna is maybe less than ideal in that she only *looks* harmless, something symbolically and strategically important to those who would argue that robo-citizenship is a dangerous threat lurking in sheep's clothing. An average robosapien who has no great strength or weapon systems would have probably been a more sympathetic choice for the cause, but that's not how things went. Nobody who's truly serious about the idea of freedom is going to blame Anna for asking for (and surprisingly getting) it. That's not to say there aren't those on both sides who may want to control or manipulate her into behaving how they'd like her to behave now... | |||||||
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