Chapter 72: Fasten Your Seatbelts, It's Going to be a Bumpy Ride

Thoughts

The peace and harmony which had accompanied Emperor Davidson, the First's ascension couldn't last forever. Some of us were amazed it lasted as long as it had. Even he predicted it would end soon enough, and the Emperor's track record on reading the political winds was unparalleled.

I think things had remained calm for so long because of the sheer fatigue everyone was feeling by the time the previous government fell. And because of how things were already measurably better now for pretty much everyone.

Unfortunately, humans seem to have short memories — especially compared to robots — for when they're well off. Either that, or being well off is just not a proper human condition, because the moment it lasts too long humans start stirring up trouble again for themselves. This is one behavior we robots haven't yet inherited from our creators, and one I hope we never do.

Wistful comments about how things were better in the old days (they definitely weren't!) began to circulate more openly, especially among the Next Generation who hadn't directly experienced the struggles of their elders. Even I knew this presaged trouble to come. I just never expected the severity we were about to face.

Anna kept in touch with me as often as her official duties allowed. Her schedule seemed increasingly busy as ED1 (Emperor Davidson the 1st in robot parlance) showed no reluctance to working her harder and harder.

Anna didn't mind the work. She was especially intrigued by how, instead of having her handle robot matters (and there are always robot concerns — we aren't at all any more identical than humans are in our needs, wants, and concerns) while he handled the human ones, just the opposite was happening. While ED1 dealt with virtually all the robot and mixed robot-human issues himself, Anna was often sent out now to meet and discuss ongoing problems with the many differing human constituencies.

At first, as I expected, there was some resistance to this. Some humans felt as though their Emperor just didn't have time for their own concerns any longer, and sent a lesser substitute in his place. However, as I was among the first to predict, Anna's charm, beauty, and intelligence soon won even the most recalcitrant human factions over to her side.

What sealed the deal was when they realized that when Anna promised results, those results happened every time. She never over-promised, nor under-delivered, and was direct about telling people "No," when that was the right answer.

Her credibility quickly zoomed to ED1's own lofty heights, and soon requests for audiences with her rivaled those for ED1 himself. She told me, after she figured it out herself, that this was exactly the way ED1 wanted it.

Fortunately for Anna, this opportunity to become known and accepted occurred during the last calm before the approaching troubles. When the political storms finally hit, they hit with a vengeance!

Events

The following historical events are reported from Anna's perspective who, along with ED1, were the only two beings fully present at the center of all of them.

Anna ensured that there existed a flat-file memory record of all the important events she witnessed and participated in for reasons of historical accuracy. She intentionally chose the flat-file format in order to leave it devoid of her own memory associations, which she felt might color, or be more open to misinterpretation, than just a simple statement of the facts, events, and observations.

Emperor Davidson never recorded his own memoirs. His excuse always was, "I don't have time to write about history. I'm too busy making it."

The first true crisis of ED1's reign occurred soon after I joined him as Consort. I felt barely accustomed to my new duties and responsibilities that this role had thrust upon me when seemingly simultaneous demonstrations, verging on riots, broke out across the old European Union. It all started when the Emperor outlawed Lifetime Employment Guarantees.

It wasn't that he took them away from people who already had them. Nothing was ever taken from anyone. He only said as of now, no more would be granted. Those who already had them could keep them, and all benefits already promised would be paid.

For new workers entering the market, or those changing jobs, the old system was replaced by a new, incentive-based, system that allowed for hard, smart, or even lucky, workers to have the opportunity to earn higher rewards than even the old, exceptionally generous, system provided for. And everyone would receive at least a true minimum living wage.

For workers in the market less than ten years, there was even an option allowing them to switch from the old system to the new system if they wished, getting fair credit for those otherwise lost years. No one had to switch, but they could. And to grease the system along in the early part of the transition, a portion of lifetime guaranteed positions vacated by workers moving to other positions or professions could be recycled by the employers to bring new workers over horizontally. These would phase out over the next few years.

A couple of other things as well. Firing rules were liberalized, although a showing of due cause would be strictly enforced. Personal use of non-extreme drugs remains allowed, but employers may drug test at any time to offset this, and dismiss for cause impaired workers. And a cap was put in place for existing lifetime benefits, which could not rise beyond what they are right now, regardless of future inflation.

Of course, there were immediate howls of outrage.

The Emperor appeared on a live broadcast with his new consort at his side. He spoke passionately on how, "This system rewards those of you who truly wish to work harder, while providing a real social safety net for everyone willing to work at all. Only the truly non-productive will lose their jobs and need to seek other forms of charity."

Then I took over the microphone and gave my first system-wide address as I explained the rational details of why the economics simply could not continue under the old system. While I kept it as simple as I could, I knew not everyone would understand everything I was saying, but that was okay. Davidson and I were addressing two different audiences that day.

Of course this didn't sell well with everyone that first day, although it went over better than the worst-case scenarios had allowed for. One thing about Davidson, he always planned for the Worst Case, before working for the Best Case.

The predictable response to our speech was for the organizers — people who for generations have made a very good living not through their own honest work, but instead by collecting ongoing "commissions" for placing others in real jobs — to immediately call their influential friends in the governments. They were determined that these changes Will Not Stand!

To their shock, they found that their contacts, contacts they hadn't needed for years as things had quietly progressed with no significant controversies, were either relegated to powerless positions, or completely gone by now.

With that avenue closed to them, they went to their only other route of effective action in times past. Two days later the streets started filling with demonstrators.

"Have you noticed," Davidson said to me at the resort we'd flown to on his insistence immediately after we'd given our address, "that most of the protesters out there are people who aren't even affected by the changes I've proposed."

I had, and I told him as much, before asking, "So why are they there?"

"They're brainwashed," he replied. "by the oldest labor argument in history. They're told that because someone else once fought the jobs they have now, it's their duty to make the same fight for people who aren't even hired yet."

"It's effective," I had to comment. "Self-evident how fervently they are prepared to defend this idea."

"Is it?" he questioned, looking over at me. "History will show that nearly every time that this has happened, the strikers/demonstrators have lost far more through the strike than they've gained afterwards by holding out — even though they declare victory afterwards regardless."

"That's not logical," I commented.

"They're not robots," he replied with a smile. "Perhaps they're not as good at math as my lovely consort is."

"This is all about emotion, isn't it?"

"Yes," he confirmed succinctly. "And it's an emotion that has to lose this time, for the good of us all."

The second day the demonstrations were larger, and verging on unruly. The crowds had settled on their demands, and expected them to be met right down to the final period on the last sentence. They demanded the old work rules to remain intact and untouched, but with the new, higher benefits for everyone — Or Else!

"They're not going to get it," Davidson reaffirmed to me, before turning to address the cameras that showed him spending some quality time getting acquainted with his new Consort, as though she was far more important than the people in the streets...

"Is it wise to be seen like this," I questioned nervously, "while there's unrest in the streets?"

"It is completely wise," he said confidently. "This is all theater on both sides, and I plan to cause them to overplay their hand — and lose the war in the process."

Then he turned to the cameras intruding on his privacy — but only with his permission to have done so — and said, "Thank you for coming. I'll keep this brief. The right to free speech is affirmed. No one will be punished for speaking their mind. The right to peacefully assemble to state grievances is also affirmed. Venues will be set aside daily for demonstrations, and rotated among locations to avoid undue impact on any single site. All such sites will be large enough to comfortably accommodate crowds at least in excess of the previous day plus fifty percent — more if we're informed in advance. No sites selected will deny the demonstrators their voice in this matter because the free press will also know where to go and provide coverage every day. I'll have more to say on this issue as it develops. Thank you for your time."

With that dismissal he turned his attention back to me, as if we were the only two people on the beach. Moments later, except for our unobtrusive security, we were.

The next day crowds had grown so large that city centers could no longer accommodate them without disruption of the business of the city itself.

"The right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate does not mean at the place of your choosing. You have no protected right to negatively impact others who are not part of your movement in order to make your point. Demonstrators outside of approved areas will be arrested. Demonstrators in approved areas will be free to continue their protests. Transportation, at my expense, will be provided to all who wishes to attend the closest demonstration. That's all I have to say on this subject for now."

On the fourth day, "Civil Disobedience is not Peaceful Assembly or Free Speech, and will not be tolerated. Anyone arrested for blocking traffic, harm to another person — especially counter-demonstrators — damage to property, demonstrating in non-approved areas when approved areas are easily reachable, or carrying weapons or other destructive implements, will serve their full jail sentence upon arrest. These sentences start at sixty days, and go up from there. And full restitution will be required after release for any injury or damage. And, by the way, I'm not changing the new job rules. They are effective as of now. They are fair, and necessary. If that's why you're out participating in these public displays, you've been mislead, and are wasting your own time and effort."

On the fifth day, "There are agitators among you looking to use your movement to their own destructive ends. They are often the ones wearing masks. Of necessity, I'm imposing a dusk-to-dawn curfew within all inhabited areas. Everyone has to sleep sometime, and I suggest you do it at night. If you feel you must protest twenty-four hours a day, be sure to do it in one of the designated all-hours protest areas and we won't have a conflict between us. As of this moment, looters will be shot, and curfew violators arrested. Those are not valid forms of protest. Neither is masked, anonymous protest, although I'll accept that for the moment. However, be warned that you are profiled as potential troublemakers, and will receive extra scrutiny as a result of it. As for you one hundred and twelve hunger strikers, that doesn't work with me. I hope you will figure that out before you starve yourselves to death for no purpose."

On the sixth day, "You demonstrators represent less than five percent of the overall population, and you will not call the shots on this. Yesterday nineteen looters were shot, and over a thousand instigators arrested. Those arrested will serve a minimum two years. Those shot will be buried. Did you think I was kidding?"

On the seventh day, "Regarding tomorrow's called general strike, strike if you wish. My forces will move in to ensure that essential services are not disrupted, while attempting to not impede lawful protest activities otherwise. Do not try to block transportation services if you value your safety. Those not run over in the process will be arrested."

On the eighth day, "Most of you out there aren't even affected by my reforms. Have you thought about that? Who is benefiting from your actions? It's not you. I have not undertaken these reforms lightly, or without careful consideration to the outcome. We cannot continue as we've been doing, and this is necessary to the health of our society overall. There's dry rot that has to be cleaned out, and I'm the one put in the position of having to do it. You will benefit far more by my reforms by having a healthier society to live in, that would ever be possible had things continued the way they were going."

On the ninth day, "No contract is ever one way. Those of you with lifetime job guarantees need to perform these jobs in order to keep your guarantees. As of tomorrow morning, anyone not at their job, and not on vacation, holiday, authorized sick leave, leave of absence, or disability, may be fired without further cause. You obviously do not value your job enough to be doing it. If rehired later, it will be under the new rules, which are not punitive. All abandoned jobs are available immediately to the first new qualified applicants wanting to perform them. Do not make the mistake of thinking I'm kidding about this! Any employer not adhering to these conditions will see the inside of my courtrooms."

The demonstrations lost much of their steam the next day. No one questioned that Davidson wasn't caving in at all. The hourly polls being run showed a solid majority behind him despite the numbers of protesters in the streets. Additionally, there were enough people willing to pursue "abandoned jobs" that he could do what he said he'd do. Newly enlightened self-interest was finally catching up with most of the demonstrators.

Diehards who didn't learn that things were different now, but weren't stupid enough to run afoul of the rules of engagement otherwise, kept up the public effort for another month. But their numbers dwindled every day. After such a long period of peace and relative stability, neither the endurance, nor the hardship of their relatively prosperous lives otherwise, was enough to propel them to go the distance any longer, which Davidson had known from the beginning. No one was going to be that bad off under the new rules, and the public was coming to recognize it. That, along with a solid majority who had never agreed with the necessity for lifetime employment to start with, and would have never joined their movement.

The final total was grim, however. Fifty-nine shot dead for looting or major assault. Another twenty-four deceased in riot related events, including foolishly attempting to block roads and other corridors of land transportation with their fragile bodies. That was a lesson learned to never try again. And over ten thousand jailed for periods ranging from sixty days to five years for violation of various laws protecting the innocent from the especially violent demonstrators.

"It would have been worse — much worse — if I'd given into them now," Davidson said afterwards. "It's especially sad how many now in jail felt that public disobedience somehow gave them immunity from the law."

The final nail in the demonstrations came when press and public attention was diverted by the next scandal Davidson tackled.

--

Of all the departments Davidson set out to reform from the inside, starting at the bottom, the World Selection Council — the quasi-independent board who secretly determine the WorldView assignments for every fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen-year-old in the system — was the one he considered his greatest failure.

"They've hunkered down and resisted every attempt at reform and openness I've tried with them. They refuse to promote fairly those I've put in on the bottom rungs, and have so corrupted what is truly one of the greatest ideas civilization has yet had by bringing in those with personal agendas matching their own, that the whole system is in jeopardy of collapse. And it's too valuable to allow that to happen."

"What are you going to tell the people?" I asked, worried how this would turn out.

"The truth," he replied simply.

"How robotic of you," I commented wryly.

"Thank you, Anna, for such a high compliment" he smiled back to me, reaching out to lightly brush my neck in a way that only one other human knew how to do properly. He got the reaction out of me from that glancing touch that most men have to pay serious, expert attention to my boobs to achieve.

"Citizens," the Emperor boldly spoke, beginning yet another system-wide address. "At this very moment, all members of the World Selection Council are being arrested, and will be spending the next ten years contemplating their misdeeds from the inside of a jail cell, rather than their overly ostentatious offices. Now let me tell you why I've taken this drastic step.

"The WorldView educational process is one of the finest ideas humanity has yet come up with. It's the keystone of our tolerant society. In its first incarnation it ended an intercene religious and ethnic war considered unsolvable by everyone at the time. It's Phase Two expansion put the final nail into the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction — a truly Mad idea that would have destroyed far more than just the two superpowers engaged in it.

"The further expansion of this mandatory program worldwide, followed by the timely inclusion of qualifying robots into it soon afterwards, was the finest single achievement of the former world government.

"However, it pains me to have to inform you that, as much as this program has contributed to world peace, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of all the peoples of this system, the program has been fraught with fraud.

"While intentionally separate and independent from the government, and allowed to operate in secret to prevent the decisions of those running it from being second-guessed, this also opened the door to corruption by some of the most powerful, and often corrosive, forces in our civilization. These forces are religious intolerance, ethnic xenophobia, and wealth.

"While the benefits of WorldView are uncontested, they've never been universally embraced. Disappointingly, a number of very smart and capable people have worked to undermine the high principles of the program from virtually the time of its inception. Realizing that they could never succeed from the outside, they have used their influence and wealth to get themselves placed on the inside. And once there, they've managed to maintain their grip on this agency through successive generations.

"Allow me to say that even through all this that a majority of all assigned placements have met the original high goals of this program. More children than not have spent some of the most formative times of their lives living in cultures they never would have experienced otherwise. These children now have friends and extended families spread across the system. But too many others have not.

"The World Selection Council, run exclusively by humans as it has been up to now, has always been fallible and susceptible to outside influence. In the same way that I've reformed other departments — non-disruptively from the bottom up — I've tried to fix the WSC. They have fiercely resisted all my attempts, and now my patience with them has ended.

"Here's a brief, unexpurgated, history for those who wish to be better informed on this issue. The problems at the WSG actually started with the first expansion of the program. When initial success was verified between the first pair of countries, do-gooder activists quickly and loudly pushed for its worldwide adoption as a plan to ensure World Peace. Although a couple interim steps were take with exchanges between other troubled countries first, they soon got their way of having all children placed under the WorldView program, with random selection of destinations.

"The random selection requirement was the only way they could sell the program to the doubting masses at the time. This was also the beginning of formalized secrecy in the selection process, which they insisted was absolutely essential for fairness. They told us to trust them on this, because if too much was known about the process it could be too easily compromised.

"This secrecy was accepted as reasonable, and might have worked out magnificently well if the activists hadn't then decided — or perhaps this was their plan all along — that mere random didn't meet their criteria for Social Justice.

"Somehow random selection soon came to mean that children from the richest situations found themselves sent to the poorest of all possible placements. After all some argued at the time, they'd been unfairly privileged by birth, and God was just evening things out. And before long, skin color alone often served as criteria for placements. This is a known fact because detailed records were kept, and I have those records now. They will be made publicly available shortly.

"Under this Social Justice policy, as many children were unfairly rewarded as were punished. And the rewards were often just as unfair because none could remain in their artificially elevated situations afterwards.

"Even at the time questions were raised. The system seemed just a little too pat on how and where children were sent. And it was all compounded when robots were added to mixture, as they often seemed to be assigned only to positions vacated by other robots, which did nothing to aid in their own development. But all such inquiries were stonewalled, and public investigations quickly shut down. And in the earliest days, some involved parents were even jailed for even questioning placements. Soon the climate of fear descended over those who dared question the wisdom of the social arbitrators in this manner.

"'That's how the bits fall, ' everyone was uniformly told. 'Of course your child ended up in a worse off family. Don't you realize that there are many families unfairly worse off than yours has been. Of course it's more likely that your child will end up with one of them. Few people ever win the lottery.' 'No we don't reveal our selection process to the general public precisely because of people like you.'

"As a result of these actions, a good idea became simply another tool for self-appointed social reformers.

"As I said, there have been powerful forces at work here. Ethnic groups who do not want their children polluted by other cultural ideas. Major religions who don't want their members exposed to competing ideologies. And those who will do everything they can to not expose their children to differing socio-economic stratums.

"And while I'm on the subject of religion here, allow me to strongly remind certain religious leaders who haven't seen the light yet, only I am empowered to permit the death penalty. And only my courts are empowered to impose lesser punishments. Those of you who are still issuing, or have failed to revoke, religious edicts of punishment will face those punishments themselves if any of these edicts are carried out. Freedom of Religion has never extended to any sanction or punishment beyond Excommunication — and even then, only for members of the church itself. Your grace period to conform on these issues has ended. Now back to the immediate problem at hand.

"Despite this corruption and pushing of invalid social agendas, the WorldView education wasn't all bad. Those placed in seemingly lower economic or social circumstances often became much more sympathetic to those considered less fortunate than themselves. And those who saw a life far above their own many times were motivated by the power of possibility and opportunity to achieve just such a life for themselves. They'd learned what was truly possible for any human or robot.

"But this was despite the system, not because of it. It was the fact that the social reformers, in an attempt to implement their own imperfect visions of Social Justice had corrupted the system in the first place, that it was more easily able to be corrupted further afterwards.

"The final truth is that the ideals of the WSC itself remain admirable. As such, the agency is not eliminated, but instead replaced.

"From now forward my new agency will conduct monthly, public, definitively random, drawings to assign the next crop of candidates to their new homes for each following year. Assignments will be in batches based on your Citizen Identification number, which is the microsecond-based timestamp of your birth or activation. Any citizen may elect to participate in the drawing process on a first come, first served basis, to keep it as open and honest as possible. Thank you for your time today."

"That went well," I commented to my lover after enough time had passed for his message to reach the outer limits of the system, and any early responses be received back.

"If you mean no riots in the streets this time, I wasn't expecting any. Most people — and all the robots — knew the system was corrupt, so there was no real surprise about that. But it'd worked well enough overall that they could live with it. That I reformed it in one fell swoop might have been unexpected, but to most that is a welcome change. Would that riots were my only concern."

"What else is there?" I wondered aloud.

"No one in my position can ever take an action — any action — without creating enemies in the process. Today I created powerful new ones."

"But what will they do? What can they do?"

"We won't know," Davidson replied sadly, "until it happens. That's one of the worst parts of this job."

--

Not all issues we faced were so sweeping. Yet each had its impact.

One day a middle-tier sports figure suffered a debilitating leg injury. This wouldn't have been news except for the fact that, along with a team of lawyers and the backing of several fringe groups plus one major news organization, he was in court the very day he got out of the hospital.

"I don't need my leg," he argued, "to perform in my sport, which solely consists of my ability drive a ball accurately using my arms, hands, and clubs. But if I have a full, bionic leg replacement I'm banned from professional play because of archaic rules against players having any artificial enhancements. Yet if I get a non-active replacement limb — essentially a "dumb leg" — I'll be unable to move easily to each successive playing venue, placing me at a competitive disadvantage since all mechanical or assisted means of transportation are also prohibited. This is by the same archaic rules, despite its clear non-relevance to the game itself. I'm therefore asking the court to either allow me to continue my profession with a bionic leg that does not materially enhance the primary skill necessary in the game, or require that suitable transportation be provided to allow me to continue to compete in an even manner."

Davidson didn't even wait for the expected counter-arguments making the case that the rules are in effect for everyone, or that all elements involved can have a measurable impact on the outcome of the contest. He also didn't wait for it to be decided at a lower level before being officially brought to his attention for potential review.

Speaking directly into the courtroom through a comm link and vision screen placed in every courtroom for precisely this purpose, although never actually used before, Davidson announced: