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Ria

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One morning during the first year, a young man named Joseph Kallaghan got out of bed at 6:00am like he usual does in order to catch the 6:45am train. He left his home just on time and got to work by 7:00am. On his way to the train station he rushed past several red lights in order to avoid missing his train, the drivers held back by his action were extremely upset. At the train station he pushed his way through a crowd of people, old and young, just to make it into the train before the doors were shut for good. At exactly 6:59am, Joseph had arrived at the building where his office was. He knew that it would take exactly 20 seconds to ride the elevator up to the 20th floor if he got on it at that very moment. So, much to the dismay of the crowd in the elevator whose doors were just about closing, Joseph pressed the button once more and squeezed his way right in, delaying the rest of them by some seconds. He reached his floor with seconds to spare, and got to his desk by 7:00am.
 
During the second year, Joseph Kallaghan finally got married to his girlfriend of four years. Her father was the CEO of a company affiliated with Axell Corp and so Joseph's father-in-law provided him with a new job that came with a much higher salary. Joseph and Kate had a lovely fall wedding, honeymooned for a month and then returned to move into their bigger and better house. Joseph's routine had changed drastically since the first year. He was now the Chief Financial Officer for a company and didn't have to come in as early as he did for his old job. Also, with his newly father-in-law supporting his daughter, and by association him, he was able to purchase a brand new car for himself and his wife.
Every morning, Joseph Kallaghan got out of bed at 7:00am so he could go for his 30 minute morning run, he took a shower once he got back home, sat down with his wife for breakfast at 8:00am and then got ready for work.  By 8:43 he got into his car and headed to work 2 minutes later. By 8:58 he parked his car at his reserved spot and took his private elevator up to his office. By 9:00am he sat behind his desk and conducted meetings.
 
It is now the sixth year, just three years after the Colwell bridge incident and two years after the implementation of the laws protecting Kyroids from being exploited by humans. Joseph gets up at 7:00am, cuts his run time down to 15 minutes and has breakfast with Kate at 7:30 before taking a long shower. See, today is the day Joseph leads a meeting with the CEO of the company he works for and those of affiliated companies to present the current financial state of their business and his projections into the future. In the shower, he goes over his points, and as he dresses up he practices his gestures and expressions. By 8:00am Joseph got into his car, began to reverse into the road, waved to his Kyroid neighbor Ria and drove off to work.
At 32C, it was a hotter morning than usual. The heat had caused more people to ride in their cars and so the roads were far more occupied than usual and the traffic was just terrible. Drivers became reckless as they were all trying to beat the traffic and get to their destinations on time, pedestrians were left helpless. Joseph Kallaghan sat in this traffic completely agitated and annoyed by the situation he found himself in. He made it past just 3 lights in the last 30 minutes, it was 8:30 and Joseph had planned to be at his office getting his presentation slides ready by now. Ahead of him, Joseph saw a group of elderly men and women attempting to cross the road, instantly he looked around for an officer that could assist him in holding them back until he was able to get passed this next light. It was far too hot for people to be out by this time and so no officers were on sight, but through his rear view mirror he spotted his neighbor Ria and asked for assistance.
"Hey Ria! Would you be able to help me out with something?" he yelled as he winded down his car window. Ria approached him and asked what he needed. "I'm running really late for work and I would appreciate it if you could hold back those elderly people over there, at least until I can drive past them, you know how slow they tend to walk." he laughed. Ria assessed the situation, turned back to Joseph and said "No, I can't." "What do you mean you can't?" started Joseph, "the first law says I can't ask for your assistance if it wouldn't bring about the greatest pleasure, there are definitely more cars on this road than there are people, why wouldn't you help me?"
Ria responded, "the first law prioritizes the prevention of displeasure over making sure everyone is happy. By assessing this situation it is obvious to me that the elderly people standing out in this unbearable heat are suffering far more than you and the other young people sitting in your well air-conditioned cars, how can you not see that?" Joseph began to get upset at this and angrily responded, "Look Ria, I have a very important meeting, and I'm sure everyone else stuck in this traffic have urgent places to be, doesn't their displeasure matter too?" Ria smiled for a second and said, "you mean to tell me that you would choose your time over the life of another human being?" Joseph feeling ashamed looked away, then Ria proceeded to help the elderly cross this street, no matter how long it took.
 

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  1. The Three Laws Tofunmi Kuti

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  1. First Law Tofunmi Kuti Ria's assessment of the situation worked with an ethical theory called Act Utilitarianism:

    According to this teleological theory (a theory that maintains that the rightness and wrongness of actions is determined entirely by the consequences of the actions), the right act is the one, of all the actions open to the agent, which is likely to result in the greatest net good consequences, taking all those affected by the action equally into account. (Anderson, 162)


    Total net pleasure = Σ (intensity × duration × probability) for each affected individual. This computation would be performed for each alternative action. The action with the highest total net pleasure is the right action. (Anderson, 163)

    In a way, the first law checks the human understanding of morality and through the story, we see how Joseph ultimately puts himself over the elderly people and even makes a claim that he is in the right because his request to Ria will assist all the other people caught in traffic behind him. Anderson's article mentions how "most human beings are far from ideal models of ethical agents, despite having been taught ethical principles; and humans do, in particular, tend to favor themselves. Machines, though, might have an advantage over human beings in terms of behaving ethically." (Anderson, 166) Joseph was incapable of thinking objectively and therefore coming to the an ethical conclusion because it did not favor what he needed at the time.

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