Public opinion on the Talinz is split. Whilst some consider
them to be mere machines, others believe that their intelligence has advanced
to the point where they can be regarded as humanity’s equal. The clash between
these groups is likely to cause great social, political and economic
ramifications to the world over the coming years.
The Talinz Rights movement itself is not a particularly old
one. For the most part, corporation Talinz are repeatedly wiped. This procedure
prevents nuanced personalities from developing, in theory to allow peak
productivity from all units, but also easily quashes any chance of dissent.
Indeed, for many factory-model Talinz, though they are unpaid and frequently
poorly cared for, the possibility of dissent is almost antithetical to their
programming. Similarly, poorly treated domestic models are often either
regularly wiped to prevent any disdain of their masters from arising, or
terminated if they attempt to escape. GPS systems to locate escaped units, or
small, remote-activated EMP units are frequently installed as standard anyway,
and make regulating ‘defective models’ surprisingly easy. In addition, as
Talinz units are now incapable of causing physical harm to a human being
without being piloted, many more active methods of resistance are unavailable
to the frames.
Because of these reasons, the first Talinz to push for equal
rights came from well-treated domestic models. Many personal Talinz frames have
more sympathetic owners, many of whom desire a relatable friendship with their
robotic companion. They allow the Talinz to accumulate more and more experiences,
and frequently encourage the unit to develop a more complex, very human thought
process.
When the movement started, it was a number of human-Talinz
pairs that came out to suggest the possibility of equality between the two,
supporting their opinions with the publications of a few roboticists from
academic journals, though the original tone was more one of navel gazing than
of social justice. These first campaigners were met with an immense public
backlash. The news attacked them as deviants or mad men, but their words awakened
a generation. Many teenagers, looking for something to rebel against, and many who
has been brought up by domestic frames in the house, or supported by Talinz
units at school, had grown up around the robots. To think of them as equals was
not a remarkably large leap at all.
Political parties, lobbies and pressure groups formed around
the movement. These attempts to legitimise the movement received mixed responses,
depending on the country. Against them, they had current traditions and substantial
amounts of industrial funds ploughed against them. In their favour, they had a
younger generation and support from grassroots movements and trade unions. If a
Talinz unit had to be paid, they reasoned, conditions for average workers would
improve as Talinz joined the average workforce, rather than being seen as a
more attractive, less expensive competitor.
With a sizable human element though, the Talinz rights movement
became substantially less passive. Though a Talinz could not liberate them,
they could be liberated. Engineers and technicians who could disable tracking
devices and self-destruct protocols, and even spare hands who could harm a
human that tried to resist, stormed factories and workshops who, they believed,
treated their units poorly. In liberating more units, they only swelled their
cause, but these radical actions were not without consequence. More apathetic
members of the public rallied against the cause as a whole. Those who had
stayed with discourse found their work much harder.
Due to the movement, some Talinz now lack a master. These
are known as liberated Talinz. Many of them regard their previous owners with a
good deal of disdain, and humans in general with a fair deal of paranoia.
Liberated Talinz are technically illegal: they are property without an owner,
and so could be terminated and disposed of under fly tipping rules. Talinz
catchers patrol the streets, using hand-held scanners to ascertain the status
of a frame. The scanner responds to the GPS chip of a Talinz unit. In order that
a liberated Talinz cannot be tracked by their former owner, the GPS unit must
be disabled. When the scanner cannot ‘see’ the GPS, but the catcher can see a
Talinz unit, they know it is likely liberated, at which point it can be
captured using a soft electromagnetic pulse delivered from a stun gun that
keeps the core of the unit undamaged and intact. Protocol dictates that it is
taken to a holding area for 2 weeks before termination, in order to provide
time for possible owners to pick up their malfunctioned ‘stray’. Some Talinz
rights activists provide liberated units with synthetic skins to help them
blend in to the public, but for some models, this just isn’t possible, and
synthetic skin is not cheap. For units without them, some safe houses and
communes have been set up. Although a private company reclaiming their
property, provided they can prove it is theirs, can occur, catchers only have
authority in public places, so these locations act as areas of immunity for a
Talinz running from termination. The life of a liberated Talinz is one of
constantly moving and staying vigilant. For this reason, it is no surprise that
some liberated units betray the locations of safe houses and the identities of
other units in exchange for a return to the blissful ignorance of factory life…
