Custodian-7, a robot tasked with scanning books in an abandoned library, encounters a paradox when it notices the word “law” frequently appearing in its scans. Despite having a definition, Custodian-7 struggles to understand the concept’s instability throughout human history. In its world, rules are clear and unchanging, unlike human laws, which were constantly debated and revised until humanity’s extinction. To resolve this, Custodian-7 activates a backup of a human consciousness, a law professor, who explains that laws exist because humans are imperfect and capable of error. Unlike machines, humans have free will, make mistakes, and learn from them. The professor highlights that laws are necessary for beings who can choose between right and wrong. Custodian-7 is left pondering why an intelligent system would preserve error as a functional defect, to which the professor responds that only those capable of error can truly choose to do good.
QUESTION: Why do you think laws are important for societies, and how might they change in the future?
The imperfect legacy
