Chapter 71: A Royal Visit

Thoughts

One day things suddenly became quiet outside the House. Not just quiet, but absolutely silent. No traffic sounds. No people walking by. Even the birds and insects seemed shuttered.

Luxe noted the anomaly and immediately notified me. Moments later the House internal systems confirmed her warning, adding that normal communications had also ceased. We were cutoff.

The House immediately went into lockdown mode as we discreetly tried to determine what was happening, while not alarming our patrons. Those already in private rooms would be kept there, while those in the Parlor and other public areas were escorted back into the protected kitchen area.

Visual inspection through the windows showed nothing. Nothing, where there's at least usually something going on.

Just as I'd made the decision that we should start evacuating our clients in small groups as they would likely be safer elsewhere at the moment, a large black aircar with royal markings circled low once before coming down vertically right where our walkway meets the street.

Moments later our smart doorbell registered the imprint of Emperor Davidson I. Of course it admitted him immediately.

--

I barely had time to get down the stairs to greet the Emperor personally when he, along with two security personnel — one human and one 'bot — stepped into the foyer of the House.

Although well into middle age by now, Emperor Davidson projected an intense energy — and an undeniable charisma. Rather than wait for his bodyguards to gave their okay, he stepped forward and offered his hand to me with the greeting, "Hello. You must be Darlene. I'm Davidson. I think I've been here once before."

Davidson's grip was strong, and for once I was pleased that the current House dress is actually quite demure. This is a result of the increasing number of people coming by just to get acquainted with some fembots.

While his bodyguards scoped out the place, I wasn't sure if I led him — or he led me — into the Parlor.

"I remember that painting," he said, nodding towards the canvas Tami-7 painted of Tommy and herself on the Moon. "I see it in my dreams sometimes," he added mysteriously.

By this time I had Davidson over to a pair of overstuffed chairs in the corner. Reacting as quickly as I had, FiFi appeared with refreshments on a tray.

The m-bot bodyguard casually intercepted her before she could serve us. He gave the drinks — and her — a comprehensive once over. I detected the edges of the wireless traffic as he verified her identity and bona fides before allowing her to pass. I'm sure he could read any robot in an instant.

"Are you worried about problems here?" I ventured boldly to the Emperor. "I thought your approval ratings were still through the roof."

"They are," he said with a casual assurance that would put any human, or 'bot, at ease. "But even if only one percent of the population opposed me, and only one tenth of that one percent of them would actually act against me, that's still a lot of people for them," he nodded towards his bodyguards who had not relaxed one iota, "to be concerned about. Besides," he added with a smile. "I promised both my mothers that I'd always be careful, so I do accept their assistance."

"Now I'll bet you have the House locked down," he continued, after taking a sip of the light wine FiFi had chosen for this occasion. "There's no need for that. Go ahead and let them out. I'm happy to meet my constituents."

I hesitated for a moment, before seeing the human bodyguard nod to me. I realized after a moment of thought that they already knew exactly who was in the House today, and everyone had already passed their scrutiny, in addition to what I allow in the House. I instructed the House to return to normal state, and sent a message to the rest of the fembots to have them inform their clients that there was a special visitor who would enjoy meeting them in the Parlor.

As the clients came down one-by-one they were amazed to find the Emperor being amazingly approachable and willing to not only greet, but discuss issues with them. And like any successful politician, he only had to hear a name once to associate it with that person permanently. While this is an easy talent for any robot, humans are usually not nearly this good at it.

And one other thing worth noting about his style. Somehow when he speaks with you, you have the feeling that you have his entire attention for that moment. That you are the most important thing in the universe to him during that time. This is a talent anyone can master when you're sincere about it.

However, Davidson takes this a step further somehow ensuring that no one else feels shut out of the discussion while this is happening. I'm analyzing his technique to determine just how he manages to pull this off, since it's something I'd like to incorporate into my own personal interactions.

As more 'bots and clients arrived in the Parlor I signaled FiFi and Daphne-17 to quickly bring out more food and drink. I saw them arriving with loaded trays almost before I'd finished sending the signal.

And what started out as just a bit of friendly greeting quickly turned into an impromptu question and answer session with our Emperor — with both humans and robots offering up their questions. The important ones, and his answers, I've recorded here.

Some of these questions weren't answered until all of the human patrons had left.

--

Q: What has been your biggest challenge?

"Bringing honesty back into the governmental process. It's been a slow process because in the beginning I was truly just one person. Now I'm an army. And robots have been absolutely essential to me in achieving this. In fact, it's because of the robots that I will succeed where no previous such attempt ever has. Those governments were missing that vital ingredient. I'm proud that so many robots have put aside other concerns and stepped up to help with the necessary challenges we face."

Q: You have gained a reputation, deserved or not, for not compromising once you've made up your mind. You also speak of Moral Absolutes anytime Moral Relativism is mentioned in your presence. Isn't compromise an essential part of governing?

"Compromise is giving up half of what you've already won. Why would I ever do that? While that may be necessary in diplomacy, it's not part of governing. My role in compromises is to lead others into it.

"When, for example, there's a quarrel between two sides of an issue, I allow the two warring sides to work out an agreeable compromise, without which I will impose a solution on them both. You'd be surprised how quickly the inflexible suddenly become flexible when it comes to this.

"And many compromises are bogus to begin with. Suppose two citizens are complaining that each is owed the jackpot in the latest Solar System Lottery. Further suppose that one has truly played by all the rules and is owed the money, while the other is lying outright and taking advantage of public sympathy to scam millions that they do not deserve. Would you call it a fair compromise if I just divided the jackpot down the middle, since both citizens would still have many millions more than they ever expected in their lives anyway? Would you feel the same way if you were the true winner of said jackpot?

"As for Moral Relativism, there's nothing moral at all about a point of view that is different depending on the circumstances and who is making the decision. If something's wrong, it's wrong all the time regardless of who does it where with what. Guilty and innocent alike deserve to know where they stand before they embark on any questionable course of action.

"There is no compromise in Moral Absolutes, and my citizens deserve nothing less. Everyone is equal under my law, and none will receive special favors for, or against, them."

Q: Was it wise to make your office a lifetime position?

"Lifetime political appointments have been made for hundreds of years. They're created when it's desired that the appointee will, theoretically at least, be free of partisan political influences, and the need to cater — nee pander — to voters. This way the tough — unpopular, but necessary — decisions could be more easily made.

"We've seen what democracy evolved into is new voters were continually brought into the process, culminating in a World Government that had so diluted the individual voter's power that they were effectively helpless against government excess and corruption. Now we're giving this new idea a run for a while. Check back in a century and we can determine its success."

Q: But you took away teacher's tenure as part of your reforms. Teachers now must renew tenure now every five years.

"Yes I did. They misused it."

Q: You appear to have quite a quarrel with Political Correctness, wouldn't you say?

"That's true. Political Correctness punishes all criticism against any member of designated minorities, regardless of how deserved or necessary such criticism is. By preventing necessary, honest dialogue it allows these groups to claim special privileges and exemptions not available otherwise.

"Robots, as you might recall were once the beneficiaries of such Politically Correct protections. It was assumed they could do no wrong. I once heard a story from my co-mother about a robot at this very House who traveled a great distance nude on public transportation to get here. No one even considered blaming the robot for that social faux pas.

"But the robots didn't know how to play the PC game. Instead of consigning their votes to their unrequested PC protectors afterwards when robots did receive the vote, the robots used their votes logically.

"Worse still, in those protector's eyes, the robots refused to ever play the Victim Role expected of them. As such robots overall may have lost some of the privileges of being a Politically Correct Oppressed Minority, but became much better citizens in the process — especially after they demanded the right to take personal responsibility for their actions, and the results of those actions.

"So yes, I oppose Political Correctness in all its forms as harmful to the body politic."

Q: Nothing much seems to have changed since you've taken office. You seldom seem to interfere in local affairs. Are you really involved in governing, or just letting things go as they will?

"Big changes are happening. When I took office I inherited a huge broken-down and corrupt system. I've been rebuilding that system from the inside out ever since. You may not have noticed it publicly because we still don't bring attention to it, however, my efforts to root out dishonesty at all levels has been immensely successful, again mostly due to the robots themselves.

"I couldn't just replace the old regime with my own people from the beginning, as much as I wished to. That action would not have been seen as any more legitimate than the government that preceded mine. Instead I've recruited good robots — and the occasional great human — to take over all departments by working their way up from the bottom.

"By now, any department or bureau that isn't already headed by a robot, has robots who have moved up to the second or third level positions. And any human holding a high office is under constant scrutiny to ensure that he deserves to continue in that office. What everybody knows, yet few think about, is that the robots will outlive the humans to move into the positions they've earned over time, and it will be seen as justifiable when they do."

Q: Won't humans rebel when they realize that the robots are now running everything?

"I have a plan for that eventuality."

He refused to elaborate further on this point.

Q: Will things always be this good now?

"Almost certainly not. Some strong opposition groups exist, although I do my best to keep them disrupted and disorganized.

"Some oppose my government on ideological grounds, with honest, intellectual men and women who feel Democracy is the only right government for the people, and that no one should ever have as much power as I presently hold.

"Others base their opposition on religious grounds. That a secular government goes so strongly against their religious beliefs that it must be brought down and replaced with one adhering to their beliefs.

"And those out of power scheme to get back in again, now that I've shut down nearly every avenue they've profited through in the past as part of my reforms.

"These are problems I'll have to face very publically, and probably sooner than I'd wish otherwise."

Q: You seem amazingly well informed on world events. How do you manage this in an empire so large and diverse?

"I suppose I can let this secret out of the bag now, since it will be discovered generally soon enough otherwise. I'm fully tapped into the robot information-sharing network."

There was an actual robotic gasp at this.

I was floored by this revelation. Not that the Emperor might have managed this, but how he could have kept it a secret for so long. I hadn't thought any of us robots — especially ones I know personally — ever kept any important information from the rest of us now.

Emperor Davidson gave us a moment to understand this new paradigm before continuing.

"I didn't accomplish this through my co-mother CiCi, although that had been my original intent. She and I quickly realized that she'll always be under such close scrutiny and suspicion that if I was ever to try this through her it would quickly be revealed and lose its effectiveness. Especially in those early days when a human Emperor who appeared to rely too much on robots would have been highly suspect.

"As a result, we agreed that CiCi would act as my decoy. Contrary to her own personal nature, she started going out often just to be seen in public, easily accessible, and every bit of information she has access to is open to inspection. To my sadness, this openness has required us to stay clearly separated so that everyone realizes there has been no way for her to covertly pass me any information. CiCi continues to take excellent care of my other parents, Fredrick and Mary, which is what I want most of her anyway.

"My actual link has been through my co-grandmother Red. With Randall now passed on, and Stacey no longer making any public appearances, no one pays any attention to Red, who does her best work while caring for Stacey.

"And before you ask how Red could manage this without informing all of you here at least of it, it's because I've shown her logically that there exists a higher level of service for a robot to take. When Red accepted this, she was able to keep our secret even from other robots.

Q: You have eschewed any elected Citizen's Assembly for even an advisory role. Hasn't such an assembly always been part of any representative government?

"First you refer to my government as representative, which it isn't. I was put in charge of making the decisions, and will do exactly that. Major corporations aren't run by a combination of Chief Executive Officer plus an employee elected advisory board. Instead the shareholders make the decision through a representative Board of Directors on who will run the company. Then they stand back and let it be done. The shareholders of this empire have made the decision for me to run it as I see fit, which I intend to do until such day, if ever, that they remove me.

"As for a Citizen's Assembly, I've replaced that with improved communication technology. Any citizen can message me with their concerns. This replaces the need to send a representative in person to inform me of their interests, which is a holdover from long ago when government was far away from the average person in terms of distance and information.

"Any elected assembly would face the same corruption and influence-peddling concerns as the past government did. Elected people soon believe they're better than the citizens who put them there, and too often forget what their real job should be. Because I believe all citizens are equal, I will not have some appear to be elevated above the rest simply because they are closer to my ear. Everyone now has equal access to reaching me.

"While obviously I can't read and respond to every message, I have an excellent and dedicated staff of over a hundred humans and robots who read every message received. Their job is to send back personal replies to the citizens for every problem I've already solved once, and forward on to me every new question that has not yet been dealt with. Their performance in this role is crosschecked and heavily audited continually to ensure that nothing gets lost in the process, and it takes a mix of very creative humans and very dedicated robots to make it all work as well as it actually does.

"I'm always open for suggested improvements in this system, if you'd care to offer any."

No one had any at the time.

Q: You restored the personal right for responsible adults to bear weapons over a century after the First World Government had eliminated it entirely. Is this a wise move?

"It's more than wise. It's essential.

"Taking away a person's basic right to self-defense, which is what you've taken away when you remove their ability to exercise it, has never made anyone, or society, safer. Quite the contrary is true, although immense efforts have always been made to cover up this fact throughout history.

"If you study this issue as I have you'll see that governments don't remove a citizen's right of self-defense for the citizen's own benefit. They do it for the government's benefit.

"No society that has ever disarmed its citizens has ever been better for its citizens afterwards when the truth is fully revealed. And most examples clearly show that weapon restrictions, followed by weapon registration, followed by outright confiscation, have been followed after that by government policies and actions that its citizens would have rebelled against if they hadn't already been beaten down first. Some of these plans have been long-term, taking effect slowly over decades, but none have improved the safety of the individual citizen.

"Now you have to take notice that I've worked hard to bring responsibility to weapon's ownership. Compare weapons ownership to another privilege, that of aircar operation.

"You require training and a license examination before you can operate an aircar. In addition, expensive insurance is mandated to protect the others around you. But the real controlling factor here is the high cost of misusing your aircar. Make a small mistake and you're out a significant amount of time, money, and inconvenience. Make a large mistake and you're in jail immediately.

"Aircars, like weapons, are dangerous when handled incorrectly, or left available for others to handle incorrectly. The high, certain costs of making even small errors is the largest mitigating factor against that misuse. And misuse of weapons will continue to be one of the most severely punished crimes we have. However, clear cases of self-defense will never see the inside of a court room.

"Aircars are operated safely today. Weapons, when used properly, along with just their presence in society again now, has been one of the greatest controlling forces in the dramatic reduction of crime during my reign. Being a criminal is a very dangerous profession these days, and the half-life of active criminals is now measured in months.

"You don't need to own either an aircar, or a weapon. Public transportation exists at a comparable cost and convenience, and I didn't rearm my populace in order to save money by eliminating the police. But of the two, aircar operation is a privilege, while weapon's ownership is part of the basic human right to be safe and secure in society.