Age of Majority for a SAI

[AlexanderHowl]

So, a question, at what age is a SAI legally considered an adult?

[Celjabba]

Hard to say.

In many cases, THS SAI are actually considered "ward", legally put under the responsibility of a guardian.

Ghost and shadow are another special case.

On the mental development side, I would say it depend on the SAI design, and if it evolved to SAI or started at that level, also.

But absent special cases, hours, maybe days rather than years, I would think.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

So, a question, at what age is a SAI legally considered an adult?

Is this even a meaningful concept? It doesn't seem to be.

Even in humans changes in legal status at particular age(s) are generally rebuttable presumptions based on average "growth" rates, not an absolute. So why would there be a time based change for SAIs, which are both vastly more variable in growth than humans and, having much better understood and easily accessed digital minds, much more amenable to direct measurement of whatever you consider the essential markers for "adulthood"?

Worst case, anywhere SAIs are considered legal persons, an SAI that wanted to go to the trouble could appeal to the same court and use whatever tests are in place to decide the fitness of children to be emancipated early to obtain the same status. If there are a lot of SAIs doing this, there may need to be some changes to the law to allow more automation of the process, which is after all sort of what the rebuttable presumption age test is for so the courts don't need to decide for *everyone*, but since age would mostly be a lousy standard for SAIs, and therefore wouldn't reduce the court's workload much, I don't see any likelihood of using it for anything nonhuman that doesn't have a fairly stable average maturation rate.

[RogerBW]

I would expect it to have to pass some sort of basic cognition test, which might happen almost at once. In GURPS terms, making sure it really does have IQ 9+ and Honesty.

("Why don't fleshbags have to do that?")

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

("Why don't fleshbags have to do that?")

Sometimes they do, but it mostly only comes up for the reverse case when they've done something where the penalties are vastly different for adults and their attorneys are trying to reduce them by proving they are too stupid or mentally ill to know right from wrong.

[AlexanderHowl]

The reason why it is an important question concerns the rights and responsibilities of adulthood (as well as equal treatment under the law). If a biological entity is treated as an adult only when they reach the age of eighteen (for example), then a digital entity would have to follow the same rules or else they are being given preferential treatment (the same would apply to parahumans and bioroids compared to humans). In that case, you could legally ban the usage of 'minor' SAIs and bioroids in combat if you would not allow a baseline human to fight at the same age.

It would especiall matter in the case of age of consent. If the age of consent in a society is sixteen for a baseline human, then they would have to apply the same age of consent to sexual encounters between parahumans, bioroids, and SAIs (otherwise, it is a violation of equal treatment under the law). So, if a baseline human was caught having virtual sex with a nine year old SAI, they would have to be treated the same way as if they were caught having virtual sex with a nine year old baseline human. At least in the USA, the constitutional arguments for equal treatment under the law are fairly straightforward and allow only a few exceptions, as they apply to any person (not citizen, resident, or even human, but person).

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The reason why it is an important question concerns the rights and responsibilities of adulthood (as well as equal treatment under the law). If a biological entity is treated as an adult only when they reach the age of eighteen (for example), then a digital entity would have to follow the same rules or else they are being given preferential treatment (the same would apply to parahumans and bioroids compared to humans). At least in the USA, the constitutional arguments for equal treatment under the law are fairly straightforward and allow only a few exceptions, as they apply to any person (not citizen, resident, or even human, but person).

I would think that law-makers would revise the laws once sapient beings with various mental/physical maturity appear.

Especially since the spirit of the law would remain inchanged.

I would need to check, but this is probably discussed in THS.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

If a biological entity is treated as an adult only when they reach the age of eighteen (for example), then a digital entity would have to follow the same rules or else they are being given preferential treatment

In most cases there are technically no such age checks. There's a legal presumption that you don't have to bother making a formal determination at particular ages, but it is still generally possible to do so (in either direction) if there is a reason for doing so. This is *certainly* the case for the "age of consent" stuff you referenced, and is common for everything else too. I think some places even allow you to disenfranchise voters above the voting age if they're incompetent. Age tests are mostly for convenience, not hard rules, and they're easily variable for different cases - for that matter a lot of jurisdictions right now apply different ones on your example age of consent for different sexes.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It would especiall matter in the case of age of consent.

The original question was a bit weird, but now you're taking this into areas we REALLY do not want discussed here on the forums given the current political and social climate. Thread locked.