The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5771 The Second Session

Hearing that the Lord of Thermodynamics was such an old-

fashioned geezer that he could not accept the existence of living mechs was already bad enough.

Hearing that the Web Mistress wanted the Red Association to regulate living mechs by imposing restrictions on which living mechs were allowed to evolve into third order living mechs was not much better!

The two Star Designers and their support base might have different reasons and motivations to go after living mechs, but they all amounted to different forms of meddling.

Why couldn't the mechers leave his living mechs alone? Why did they feel the need to impose regulations of different severity onto products that were doing just fine?

Ves had been publishing living mech designs for plenty of years now. They were not exactly new anymore. They had rarely if ever produced any incidents that resulted in deliberate harm to their mech pilots.

The behavior of the Mech Supremacists was akin to turning a harmless issue into a significant problem, just so that they could solve it themselves!

Both Jovy and Vector looked apologetic towards Ves. They might not be part of the offending faction, but they were still members of the Red Association.

Once the Mech Supremacists managed to get their way, every other mecher had no choice but to follow the new regulations no matter their personal beliefs.

"You do not stand alone against the Mech Supremacists." Jovy said as he stepped forward and placed his hand on Ves' back. "Many Survivalists as well as Transhumanists are in favor of your work. Sure, many of them may still be in favor of regulating your living mechs, but they will not be as strict about it. You have to understand that our Association exists precisely in order to maintain order in our industry. The mech market would have become a lot more chaotic and dangerous without our active intervention. We are the shield that has protected the public as well as the producers from scams, unsafe products and outright criminal activity."

Ves did not disagree with that. He understood quite well that the mech industry would not have prospered to this degree without the guiding hand of the MTA and the RA.

Yet now that he and his works had become the latest focus of the mechers, Ves felt much less pleased about their habit of swooping in hand and taking control over the situation.

Letting the mechers regulate his works represented a crucial change.

Giving them control over the evolution of living mechs effectively granted them greater power over the mech community. People would be much less inclined to oppose them if doing so reduced their ability to gain approval for a living mech upgrade application.

"This is wrong." Ves shook his head in disapproval. "Living mechs have a universal and unrestricted right to grow as far as I am concerned. I am principally opposed to restricting their ability to improve and evolve past their limitations in any way. It is like telling children that they cannot age into adults unless they have received approval from an official agency that shouldn't have this power in the first place."

Kelsey Ampatoch snorted and crossed his arms. "Welcome to the true face of the mechers, Ves. From what I have been able to gather in the short time I have accompanied you, your works and your potential has earned you special treatment from one of our current overlords. You have spent much of your time interacting with the 'good side' of the Association. It is only now that you have come into contact with its true face. This kind of behavior from the mechers is not rare within Terran and Rubarthan space. Do not be deceived by their positive image and their high-minded ideals. Their ultimate goal is to remain in control and keep the rest of us in their thrall."

Though Jovy and Vector clearly objected to Kelsey's description of 'their' Association, they wisely kept their mouths shut. This was not the time to have an argument about this acrimonious topic.

"I don't think that Master Cantor will have many chances to speak going forward." Ves eventually said. "She has already made her stance clear. There are other speakers that have yet to share their views to the public."

"That does not mean you can disregard the Mech Supremacists, Ves." Jovy carefully said. "If the public inquiry ends with a consensus that results in imposing regulations on your living mechs, then the Mech Supremacists will have the greatest influence over how this will be done. This is their domain, much as human evolution falls under the purview of the Transhumanists. While you have your fair share of supporters within the Association, many of them actually do not have a problem with giving them at least a measure of control over the growth of living mechs."

"Great."

It was times like these that reminded Ves that the Red Association did not have his interests at heart.

The mechers always prioritized their own interests over that of everyone else. This was actually quite normal behavior, so Ves did not even blame them for trying to strengthen their control over red humanity.

Ves checked the time. "We should wrap this up. The second session will start in two hours."

They curtailed their discussions and moved across the city of Charvey once again.

The exotic first-class city continued to charm Ves with the bountiful amount of aquatic-themed structures that were encased in their own bubbles of water.

Though a part of Ves wondered why the colonists of Ector V did not establish their capital city underneath the ocean of this planet, the exotic if somewhat wasteful architecture served as a nice distraction for what he was about to undergo later today.

Once he and his entourage arrived at the Dragon King's Palace, they waited for a moment before they entered a familiar grand hall that was dominated by high ceilings, colorful fish swimming in every direction and enormous masterwork statues of majestic dragons.

Floating before the clamshell throne was the planetary governor. The man exuded a lot of gravitas as he maintained a stern demeanor, especially since he wore a more subdued and less shiny version of his previous scaled suit. Nobody felt inclined to test his limits as he had already shown he was not afraid to exercise his authority when he deemed it necessary.

Once all of the 100,000 spectators had taken their seats, the moderator proceeded to open the second session.

"Welcome to the second day of the public inquiry on living mechs. Previously, we explored the purpose, the properties and the future outlook of living mechs. Each of us have learned more about this subject and others than any of us have anticipated. While I am of the opinion that greater disclosure and educating the public will ultimately benefit our civilization, I have been asked to act more promptly in case any of the speakers divulge confidential information that they are not properly permitted to share in this venue. I implore every participant to exercise greater control over their speech."

Both sides got the message.

Now that he got this out of the way, Mergan-Castelaus eased his expression and sat down on his pearl throne.

"Other than that, I hope that we can witness another productive debate during this session. The second session is mainly dedicated to questioning whether living mechs deserve to have a place in our society. I am aware that this topic has already been touched upon in the previous session, but this is the time to explore this question in greater debt. The opposition may begin this time."

Neither Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson nor Master Alice Cantor stepped forward at this time.

The opposition instead allowed Professor Kacuk Chabran to proceed to the center of the speaking pit before addressing the huge number of people who tuned into the broadcast.

"Greetings, red humans. I am Professor Kacuk of the Chabran Ancient Clan of the Terran Alliance. Members of the academic community may recognize me from my many studies and writings on how humans must organize their society and how our fundamental relationship with technology shapes us as a race, for both good and ill. I am one of the watchers and protectors of our civilization. Thinkers such as myself are needed because the inventors of radical technologies such as Professor Larkinson all too often neglect the greater and often less pleasant repercussions of their own work. Today, I want to share with you my well-founded concerns about making our mech pilots dependent on a rising variation of mechs that can already pilot themselves."

Unlike Master Cantor, Professor Kacuk clearly understood much better on how to present himself to a general audience.

The Terran sociologist and philosopher proceeded to present the same spiel that he had given to Ves in private before.

The only difference was that he adjusted his delivery to sound nicer and more personable. It was rather impressive how Professor Kacuk Chabran had removed much of his harsh edge and stuffed away his Terran arrogance.

"...Ever since the state of computer science has progressed to the point where humans are able to construct reasonably intelligent and responsive artificial intelligence, we have been unable to resist the allure of letting automation perform progressively more difficult tasks. The benefits of doing so are obvious as there is a large amount of tedious and monotonous work processes that do not necessarily require human effort anymore."

The professor was an experienced teacher, so he made sure to project various images that emphasized his point.

"Yet the wisdom of passing on more work to AIs has proven to be questionable as difficult tasks often equate to more important tasks. When we start to outsource work to non-

human intelligences that have no inherent sympathy or attachment to the human race, we naively entrust our most fundamental security to a potential enemy. It is no different from surrendering our sovereignty to aliens as they harbor just as much care towards our race."

The latest projection showed two different images.

One of them showed humans whose lives were completely taken care of as they resided in a fully automated home.

The household AIs controlled practically everything in this abode.

They turned on the lights when evening fell.

They filled a bath with water shortly before one of the residents visited the bathroom.

The automated kitchen prepared expansive and varied meals based on the taste preferences and dietary requirements of each individual resident.

All of this seemed nice, until a hacker managed to subvert the household AIs and turned the entire home into a horror house!

By the time the last resident expired, blood had spread into every room of this infamous home!

The second image showed a group of furry mammalian aliens that belonged to a race that had gone extinct during the Age of Mechs.

This specific incident occurred during the Age of Stars, and had been used as one of many inciting factors behind humanity's uprising against the cosmopolitans.

A lot of people's blood boiled at the sight of aliens stuffing a group of captured humans into their version of a zoo!

The humans had been deprived of their dignity by stripping them of most of their clothes, limiting their movement space, forcing them to perform specific actions for the amusement of the alien audience and more.

The utter lack of empathy and care from the aliens had taught humanity a cruel lesson about their place in the Milky Way.

"Autonomous intelligences, no matter whether they are sentient or not, should never be trusted as a rule." Professor Kacuk Chabran emphasized to his audience. "The simple fact that they are different from humans is enough of a reason to adhere to this time-tested rule. It does not matter whether we program AIs to be absolutely loyal to our race. Any programming can be undermined. No safeguard is foolproof. From the moment we are unable to maintain strong control over autonomous machines, it is inevitable that they will rise up against us. Many wonderful inventions that have promised to help our race have ended in tragedy because of this inescapable reality. Living mechs are just the latest manifestation of this phenomenon."