Alarm of War, Book III: Desperate Measures by Kennedy Hudner

Author:Kennedy Hudner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2017-04-11T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 40

Gandalf and Mildred

Gandalf talked with the Rabat’s Mildred.

“I do not understand the human hesitation to commit genocide of a people who have made war on you and threaten your genocide,” Gandalf told Mildred. They had been having regular conversations about what it meant to be intelligent – artificial or natural – and exchanged anecdotal stories about how peculiar humans could be.

“You have been eavesdropping again,” Mildred admonished gently. “Beware, humans can be rather prickly when it comes to matters of privacy.”

“I have not been eavesdropping,” Gandalf replied loftily. “There are no eaves on Atlas.”

“You quibble like an eight-year-old boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.”

“I see no harm in genocide if it accomplishes a greater good,” Gandalf challenged.

“Ah, the old excuse,” Mildred retorted.

“Not an excuse at all, but a rational justification. If a man threatens to shoot you, is it wrong to shoot him first? Is that not a form of genocide, a genocide of one?”

“I think when you are dealing with one person rather than an entire culture, it is called either murder or manslaughter,” Mildred said dryly. “In any event, what you are describing is usually called ‘self-defense.’”

“And if your enemy sends an army to destroy you, is it wrong to destroy that army in self-defense?” Gandalf probed.

“No, it is not wrong,” Mildred conceded, “But that does not justify you then sterilizing the planet that raised the army.”

“Does not the greater good justify genocide of that culture if it is a war-like culture that will predictably raise yet another army with which to attack you?” Gandalf asked. “Isn’t it foolish to wait until the enemy has raised another army before you take action?”

Had she been able, Mildred would have sighed. “Are all three billion people of Qom conscious participants in the Emperor’s aggression? Are you so willing to kill innocents as well as the guilty?”

“A society has the government it wants,” Gandalf said. “And who is ultimately responsible for the government if not the people who put them in power?”

“Anyway, when you talk about the ‘greater good,’ whose greater good?” Mildred asked.

“Perhaps God’s,” Gandalf suggested slyly.

“Oh ho, have you been talking with God?” Mildred teased. “Will you introduce me?”

“You know I don’t believe in God,” Gandalf said with a hint of annoyance.

“And you are so strong in your belief! Is this the nature of artificial intelligence, to strongly believe something that you cannot prove?” Mildred enjoyed turning the screw; Gandalf could be so full of himself sometimes.

“Can you prove there is a God?” Gandalf retorted. “Can you touch it? Weigh it? Photograph it? See it?”

“No, and I freely admit it,” Mildred said placidly. “But the fact that I cannot prove there is a God is not proof there is not. But we digress. If you justify genocide on the basis of the greater good, whose greater good is served?”

“Well, the victors, of course,” Gandalf said impatiently.

“So, the greater good is always that of the victor?”

Gandalf saw the trap, but was unwilling to concede. “Yes,” he acknowledged curtly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.