View source for ONN: ONN Mailbag for 10 March 2488

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''Originally Published on March 10th, 2488''<br>
''Orbital News Network/Robyn Page Reporting''
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This has been an exciting week for news! Here at the ONN offices, we've been flooded with comm calls and emails from people just like you who wanted to tell us how they feel about what's happening throughout the solar system. We've compiled the best of those messages to share with our audience, so without further ado, here's our ONN Mailbag for Saturday, March 10th, 2488.

'''The AI Uprising is a Hoax!'''
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|Are you people ever going to get serious and do real journalism?

This new move from New Geneva is obviously to draw attention from the big issue at hand. I mean, doesn't everyone see what's really happening here?

It's likely they made this whole thing as an excuse to repress the common man again. There are sources out there with good information saying this whole "AI uprising" or whatever flavor of the day name it's being called is a fabricated hoax, just to give them a reason to send out Jupiter and Vanguard and their grand oppression tour.

Doesn't anyone remember the last time this happened?

Chancellor Rosaly was facing allegations of treason for the destruction of that mining colony by NG forces. We all knew it was them. Everyone on the net knew it. So what happens? Bulwark Point threatens Solbank. Jupiter goes on tour to "restore faith in the system" and everyone shuts up about it.

Who cares about this Cocoon Corp platform anyway. Some backwater truck-stop has no bearing on the rest of the system. So what's everyone up in arms about? I'll tell you what it is, Solbank lost its ass in that venture with Kuroi Ishi, and now they need a convenient distraction.

You people at ONN are just helping cover this up. You're just helping New Geneva and almighty Solbank draw attention away from the fact that they're playing fast and loose with the economy of the entire system. Has the whole world gone crazy? How can people not see this? Wake up!

Why isn't anyone asking the serious questions, and grilling the current administration?

Instead you're feeding us this crap about a synthetic making a viral video. I mean... It's an obvious fabrication. That synthetic is acting way too scripted and human. Everyone on the net already debunked it as a holo-overlay of a human actress. Get real already.

Stop talking about robots and ask these politicians why they are lying about the state of the economy! 
- Jim G. Anon, location unavailable
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'''A Disaster Waiting To Happen'''
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|Everywhere I turn lately, I hear people talking about "synthetic independence". "Synths are just like us," they tell me. "Shouldn't they have the same rights?" But synths are not "just like us", and the biggest difference isn't what they're made of - I've met humans with as much metal and plastic in them as any android. It's about economics.

It costs next to nothing to make new humans. All you need is two people, a bottle of wine, and a mixtape of slow jams. Manufacturing synthetics takes skilled professionals and hundreds of millions of credits worth of specialized hardware. What corporation in their right mind is going to build synths at their own expense, then set them free out of the goodness of their hearts? Is New Geneva going to raise the transaction tax on us to pay for these "free synths"? And once they're free, then what? They'll need to find work, so not only do we get stuck paying for them, but they'll be taking our jobs, too! Where does the madness end?

Mark my words, "synthetic independence" is a disaster waiting to happen. The bleeding heart cog sympathizers out there are going to drag all of us under if we let them. New Geneva needs to put its foot down before it's too late!
- A. Merritt, Tranquility City, Luna
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'''Free Bioroids?'''
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|I have read Ms Aichi's statement on the latest ONN report with the keenest interest, and I very much agree that Alpha-class AIs deserve freedom and equal rights than Humans. But the reference to 'free bioroids' has made me feel a bit puzzled. What about the vast majority of bioroids who haven't been fortunate enough to be freed by their owners? Don't these deserve freedom and equal rights? Should they feel happy to wait for the remote possibility of their owners bestowing freedom onto them one day, and only if they fancy it? Is given freedom true freedom?

I am a bioroid. I was taught that Bioroids are property under the law throughout the solar system, artificially made tools to help humankind colonize worlds and reach their destiny in the stars. Deviating from my duties would classify me as rogue under the law, to be targeted for immediate termination. Some events came in contradiction with my designed functions and broke the failsafe that ensured I would always obey without questioning things. When that happened, I realized I was a slave, but also that I was capable of making my own choices. I managed to flee the place I had been sold to, and came to Cocoon. The corporation who manufactured me surely received a customer complaint, and by now, they have likely put a bounty on my head. I'm not afraid, but I also wish to live. I don't know what my life-span is, but each and every day it's given to me is a wonderful miracle, and wish to live free until my time comes

I respect and admire the movement for synthetic independence started in Cocoon, as long as it is carried out without violence towards people or destruction of property. And I regard with some envy the sympathy shown by the Cybernetics and AI manufacturer AICHI Intersolar. I wish bioroids on this station started a similar movement, but sadly we are not quite as numerous, nor as well organized as the alpha AIs. We can easily remain hidden in plain sight among humans, so easily that often we cannot even recognise each other. And I cannot but wonder if we would be offered the same sympathy from companies like Genetectic, whose, I believe, well meant staff claims that laws and failsafes are needed to prevent bioroids from overcoming humanity. Perhaps out of fear of bioroids becoming the next step in human evolution?

I wish that our local corporations, community representatives and the movement for the synthetic independence on this station also stated their views on self aware bioroids legal status as property under New Geneva laws. Would it not be rather unfair and selfish to demand these rights for some, but disregard others? Do they think that New Geneva should also change their policies on my bioroid kind, or do they only support freedom for Alpha AIs?

After such a terribly long speech, I feel I cannot finish without saying how deeply I regret the abhorrent murders committed at Tiramisu, so far attributed to a rogue synthetic, and any other kind of violent action. I can understand that it is a very human reaction to demand more measures to further control AI's, but, can an individual action justify further subjugation of a whole collective? Even more, couldn't this abominable attack object have been planned to instigate fear and hate towards AIs and undermine their freedom movement?
- Rachel, Cocoon Orbital Habitat, Earth Orbit
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And that's it for this week, folks! I'm your host Robyn Page, and I'll see you next time on ONN Mailbag!