Robotic Broker Oversight

[Terry Mixon]

My NPC robotics genius is designing an improved (and expensive) brokerbot to be used by the PCs. The plan is to seed some in major trade hubs to do the work, but also gather intelligence for their bounty hunting. That got me wondering what kind of oversight would be required. It will be self-aware, but I still imagine that sentient oversight would be mandated rather than it working solo and running itself. What are your thoughts? Could such a robot legally operate solo? Would a sentient be obligated to sign off on all the deals?

 

[MasterGwydion]

My NPC robotics genius is designing an improved (and expensive) brokerbot to be used by the PCs. The plan is to seed some in major trade hubs to do the work, but also gather intelligence for their bounty hunting. That got me wondering what kind of oversight would be required. It will be self-aware, but I still imagine that sentient oversight would be mandated rather than it working solo and running itself. What are your thoughts? Could such a robot legally operate solo? Would a sentient be obligated to sign off on all the deals?

Simply have him connected to his "owner's" neural comm. Then the bot is in constant "control". Can't get much more oversight than that.

 

[Geir]

"We don't sell to their kind here," to misquote a certain Mos Eisley barkeep.

I'm not a lawyer nor would I ever claim to be, but thinking of historical precedent to a time when minor children and wives were considered to "belong" to their father/husband (in most cases not the same individual in both relationships, but who am I to judge... anyway), then I don't think they could say, in the 19th century in the USA, enter legally binding contracts, so I image robot law would be similar. Unless it was an "Emancipated Robot" and if that's a thing, then it would be in your universe.

But could the robot be considered an agent of its owner? Hey, Business Law was in 1988 and I was more interested in the young lady who was my study partner than the material at hand, so I have no such recollection, your honor.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Simply have him connected to his "owner's" neural comm. Then the bot is in constant "control". Can't get much more oversight than that.

Ah, but the plan is to have them start spreading out. Hence the possible manager at every port.

 

[Terry Mixon]

"We don't sell to their kind here," to misquote a certain Mos Eisley barkeep.

I'm not a lawyer nor would I ever claim to be, but thinking of historical precedent to a time when minor children and wives were considered to "belong" to their father/husband (in most cases not the same individual in both relationships, but who am I to judge... anyway), then I don't think they could say, in the 19th century in the USA, enter legally binding contracts, so I image robot law would be similar. Unless it was an "Emancipated Robot" and if that's a thing, then it would be in your universe.

But could the robot be considered an agent of its owner? Hey, Business Law was in 1988 and I was more interested in the young lady who was my study partner than the material at hand, so I have no such recollection, your honor.

Agent? Maybe, but I find myself leaning toward mandating a manager at every port. The robot might be doing the work, but some has to make sure it hasn't lost its electronic mind.

 

[Vormaerin]

It really boils down to what you think the Broker skill entails. If it's just a trading algorithm scanning the internet for good offers and snapping them up, that's probably a standard practice and you probably just need someone to sign the contracts. If you think the Broker skill is primarily a social skill, meeting clients, maintaining relationships, haggling, engaging in complicated multiparty swaps, and so on, then you have a much harder time just having a robot doing that.

 

[Terry Mixon]

It really boils down to what you think the Broker skill entails. If it's just a trading algorithm scanning the internet for good offers and snapping them up, that's probably a standard practice and you probably just need someone to sign the contracts. If you think the Broker skill is primarily a social skill, meeting clients, maintaining relationships, haggling, engaging in complicated multiparty swaps, and so on, then you have a much harder time just having a robot doing that.

As the robot handbook has a brokerbot doing all of that, it must be able to shmooze a little. It has carouse for goodness sake.

 

[Vormaerin]

Which, again, depends on what you think is going on. If you feel like people will carouse with a robot and make deals over drinks, then great. If you don't think that will think that's normal, not so great.

That's something I would imagine will be different from world to world. Some high tech rich worlds won't even have actual people doing anything so gauche as working. That's what their bot is for. Others will be calling for the Butlerian Jihad. Most will be somewhere in between. But I suspect that if they are inclined favorably to dealing with bots, they are probably using them themselves. Either as assistants or you'll see a group of bot at a droid bar getting lubed up and making deals.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Which, again, depends on what you think is going on. If you feel like people will carouse with a robot and make deals over drinks, then great. If you don't think that will think that's normal, not so great.

That's something I would imagine will be different from world to world. Some high tech rich worlds won't even have actual people doing anything so gauche as working. That's what their bot is for. Others will be calling for the Butlerian Jihad. Most will be somewhere in between. But I suspect that if they are inclined favorably to dealing with bots, they are probably using them themselves. Either as assistants or you'll see a group of bot at a droid bar getting lubed up and making deals.

True enough.