Note to mods: If this is in the wrong forum, please excuse me, I did not know where else it would fit.
Hi-
Let me just preface by saying I've been playing this game, on (and sometimes off) for the past six years. I've made a ton of decisions in that time, and although my nation is an over-polluted mess, I feel like the decisions I've made have fit in with the type of nation I wanted, and hoped for. The national concept is that of several future dystopian movies from the 1970's. and is based in the near future, around 20 years from now. The cause of dystopia is from several real world factors, such as war, overpopulation, globalism, pollution, food shortages, the power of the deep state, military industrial complex, mega-corporations, and shortages of natural resources. The result is a population which needs to be constantly armed in order to protect itself, human mutations that prey on anything that moves, out of control killer robots, a population forced to eat Soylent Green, if they wish to eat at all, corporations who run the government though paid elected puppets, and sports that involve human deaths as a form of entertainment for the masses. It's truly a hellish badlands, and I couldn't be happier with the result. It's exactly what I wanted.
Recently however, I was force to make a policy decision, and I'm not sure if I made the right one. It legalized both the rights of sentient humanoid robots to be equal to that of humans, and recognized marriage between humans and robots (often referred to as a Robosexual relationship, which is a reference to an episode of a cartoon called "Futurama").
Robots, when I was young, where nothing more than automated machinery capable of performing repetitive (and sometimes dangerous) tasks without the need to rest, take breaks, days off, pay and benefits,lighting, heating, and other needs that humans require. They do cost quite a bit of money, and are subject to break downs, but are otherwise better at a task than a human doing the same job. Of course, there are only so many jobs a robot can do realistically.
Fast forwards to today and robotics has come a long way. We use them in just about everything, from space exploration to modern medicine. Even more, humanoid robots (robots that look human) are a real thing. They has artificial intelligence and can "learn" just like people do. They can move on their own, and many can do the same things humans can do, like engage in conversations, or sexual intercourse. They have programed emotions, and some can feel pain (that is, can sense when something goes wrong, becomes broken, etc, and act accordingly). I feel in the next few decades, this will be added to, and refined to the point we'd need to put some type of mark on them to distinguish a robot from a human.
My problem Is this. Robots are created to be the servants of man, not his replacement. They are property, just like cars, toasters or computers. At the same time, they are self aware and sentient, capable of complex thoughts, emotional responses, have wants and needs, and otherwise act as they are created to act, human. Of course, a human/robot couple cannot have children in the usual way, but there is always sperm banks and artificial insemination to help with that problem, and many orphaned children who need a good home. With all this being said, should humanoid robots, despite their complexities, be relegated to an existence of servitude to humans, or was it a good idea to have them walk side by side with humans as equals, as we go together into a uncertain future? Please, let me know what you think in the forum below. Thank you.
