Guide to Robocop

[Tayswift]

I've seen a bit of confusion lately lately over the Robocop lawset and what it means. This lawset is from the film Robocop, about a cyborg police officer. While many people see it as a freedom/validhunt lawset, in fact it places some pretty strict limitations on what you can do. Keep in mind that this lawset comes from the saying "protect and serve".

Serve the Public Trust

People often get confused about what "serve the public trust" means. Common misconceptions include that this means you must do whatever the public wants (that would be "serve the public interest" or "serve the public"). I've even seen an robocop AI justify a rage cage by saying it improved public safety by getting everyone into the bar ("Maximize public safety"), which is totally off the mark.

"Serve the public trust" means that you don't abuse the power entrusted to you by the public in performing your service and executing your duties. Think of it like this: "Serve the public trust" sort of means "Don't violate the public trust". Note that this law doesn't specify exactly how you serve; this is what laws 2 and 3 are for. Law 1 never really "overrides" laws 2 and 3, but rather informs how you follow laws 2 and 3.

For a sec borg, this law loosely translates to "don't be shitcurity". For a doctor, this might mean "first, do no harm". For an engineer, "don't build random walls just to mess with people", etc.

All laws in this lawset are moral obligations rather than enforcing some sort of moral calculation, like "Minimize expenses", which means you must strive to follow them at all times. There is no balancing act to do here.

Protect the innocent

The first of the laws that determine how you serve.

Your first priority as a borg/AI is to protect the innocent. This means if you have to choose between validhunting and helping that wounded civilian on the floor, you gotta help the wounded civilian first.

Uphold the law

Finally, for people who aren't innocent, you must uphold the law (space law). This is pretty simple.

This is the end of the laws, which means you can now serve the public in whatever way they desire, as long as you're not violating the public trust, and as long as you prioritize protecting the innocent and upholding the law over other duties.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Tayswift
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[Zciwomad]

I think people treats this lawset as "freedom", becouse you can only operate on extremes here.  

The problem is here for two reasons. First is that this lawset was created for police cyborg, so it strictly forces any module to uphold the law. Second is that this lawset was created as "directives" that are equaly important and server rules states: "The order of the Laws is what determines the priority of the Laws. If two Laws contradict one another, you are to follow the one that is highest in the list, as it would overrule any contradictory Laws that come under it;". You can't "common sense" priority out. You can't ignore law, either.

"Common sense is to be used with all default Lawsets..." Robocop lawset is default? If the answer is "yes", then it's a "freedom" of doing whatever for all modules besides Sec and AI. If "no", then every module should respond to sec calls and chase "bad guys". They must "uphold the law" even without tools do to it.

Overall its a good guide, but I think that lawset itself is invalid for SS13 and was only added becouse: "Murphy was a borgo too! Let's add this as a fan service". 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2018 by Zciwomad
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[Vissy]

I think it should be treated differently in case of non-Security cyborgs.

"Uphold the law" doesn't imply "get out there, patrol the halls and arrest all the criminals firsthand" if I am a mining model (or any other non-security one). I don't have any law-upholding tools like disablers or zipties, save a default flash, nor do I have an ability to effectively coordinate with the Security department (without access to Security channel). If I were attempting to catch the criminals, the majority of them would either escape (since no stuns and zipties), harm me or simply ignore and walk away. Such vigilante actions would mess with the work of the legit security personnel, do more harm than good, and, therefore, actually be going against the law.

What is expected of me is to do delegate my law-upholding duties to the people that are actually qualified for this job (read: Security personnel, Security cyborg models, AI) and assist them to the best of my abilities. This can even be put under law 1, "Serve the Public Trust" and do what is expected of me to do. Continuing analogy with the mining model, the most effective way for me to help upholding the law would to be mining the ores and supplying the departments with the materials they need to make better toys tools for the Security personnel in order to better do their jobs. The same goes for all other models. Engineering - fix the breaches, improve the station, protect people from enviromental hazards and make it easier for Security to do their jobs. Medical? Protect the innocent from illnesses, death and other harm, serve the public trust by being a helpful mediborg they expect you to be. Janitor? Keeps the halls clean, protect the innocent from hazards associated with dark places as well as infections and diseases that are spreaded by uncleaned messes. Service? Be a hyperactive cutie (or a stiff, respectable, stereotypical English butler), assist Security by providing them with coffee and donuts and protect the crew from the horrors of low morale, sober heads, liver failures and hunger tummyaches.
 

I can directly intervene, if I am sure that by this I would help more than harm. Hearing a message about vampires roaming the station while working on the asteroid? Keep mining, I'll be of much more help down here than up there. See one dragging a wounded crewmember in the maintenance? Take a quick picture for future evidence (I have a macro for this), spring forward, flash them, pull the crewmember from their grip and run ride at full speed towards Medbay/Brig (while screaming for help, if I have finally learned how to write and run and the same time by that moment). As a miner, I also try to be on a lookout for injured miners (detecting such by either listening to the comms or passively observing GPS signals), although this is a general behaviour not linked to this lawset specifically.

In effect, this lawset could be rephrased as follows: do the job you are expected to do, protecting innocents and upholding the Space law while you are on it. This is... well, a rather kind, nice and humane lawset to abide to. Correct?