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| RAISSA CLAIRE RIVERA |
| The Creator Defends His Creation |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS STORY. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. |
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| THIS IS PART OF THE LITERATURA READING SERIES | CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LITERATURA |
| How do I plead? Well, Your Honor, let us make this short and simple, something no political trial in our country has ever been in the last hundred years or more. And, for a change, you’ll get your man with absolute proof. Guilty beyond reasonable doubt, as they say. Yes, I plead guilty. But I do not apologize.
I am of course aware that I committed fraud. Indirectly, perhaps. I built the robot and programmed him. But I never tried to pass off my android as human. I simply let people think he was. All right, perhaps that kind of concealment is a fraud. But I never told anyone to nominate or elect him for president. The people chose him, and since we are supposed to have a democracy here, then shouldn’t we accept the people’s vote? Oh, yes, the constitution does state that the president must be a person, a natural-born Filipino citizen and all that. But this robot is a person, if you mean by a person someone with his own identity, and he was indeed born here. At least, I made him here. No, Your Honor, I didn’t intend to make a mockery of these proceedings. I apologize if what I said seemed offensive or inappropriate. But I still do not apologize for my act. Look at the presidents we’ve had the past hundred years. Mostly incompetent. The better ones were too fearful of public opinion to really do any good. Because, let’s face it, elections here are just a popularity contest. There are plenty of good intelligent people in our country who could do a good job as president. But nobody would vote for them. Take me as an example. Now, I don’t think I’d make a truly great president, but I could do a much better job than a lot of people who actually were elected to that office. I’ve had more schooling than most presidents, I think. I have a Ph.D. I’ve worked on many scientific projects all over the world. I’ve written books about science. I don’t know how many people here have read them – probably not many or they would have caught my hint in my last book. I have it here, Your Honor. I wrote quite plainly that “robots may do a better job of running the world than people, if they are programmed by a select group of intelligent and virtuous individuals.” In a perfect world, everyone would agree who would be the best individuals to accomplish this task. But this isn’t a perfect world, Your Honor. I know I’m not perfect. So I based my robot’s program on the beliefs of certain great thinkers, which are also my basis for my personal value system. What I couldn’t do by myself was make him charismatic. Obviously I’m not like that, or I could have gotten myself elected as president myself. People have branded me a nerd ever since I started school, and while true, that didn’t exactly win me respect. Being interested in learning never seems to, these days. To make him attractive to people and good at dealing with them, I observed and interviewed my uncle, a leader of a charismatic group, and my wife, a psychologist. I programmed my creation’s personality then according to their suggestions. For the record, they had no idea what I really intended to do: to create a well-programmed robot to run this country. I saw my opportunity to attract attention to him in the last People Power Revolution. I got him to inspire the EDSA 9 crowd with speeches. It certainly worked. In fact, it worked beyond my wildest dreams! Everyone noticed him, everyone was soon asking about him, looking for him, trying to find out who he was. It helped that I made him good-looking. But, more than that, his way of showing concern for people moved all those he met. He never forgot a face or a name. He remembered everything about the people he met – their hopes, their worries. Everything. And he really did something to help each one, however small a gesture. Though could any of his gestures really said to be small? He charmed big businessmen into sponsoring poor children. He single-handedly hammered roofs onto storm-damaged houses. And everywhere cameras were following him. Reporters hounded him. I hardly expected that he would be elected president so soon. But that sad business with the last president and vice-president dragged on so long, new proofs of each one’s corruption constantly being uncovered till nobody was too enthusiastic about putting either in the position of president. The next thing I knew, the president and vice-president were both being charged, and my android was thrust into their place. Now you cannot deny that he did a good job, Your Honor. Was any president more tireless? He worked efficiently all day long. Even when he was supposed to be sleeping he really was working – I was programming new information into his brain. I have to say I am surprised that people did not notice that he never ate or slept until some talk-show host decided to do an exposé on how he achieved his legendary tirelessness and almost superhuman strength. Was any president braver? He went everywhere without bodyguards, even to war-torn regions. So impressed were people with his courage, as well as his sincere speeches and sensible proposals, that we finally have peace throughout the land for the first time since.... I don’t know when. Maybe right after World War II. And that’s almost a hundred and fifty years ago! Yes, of course he’s a machine. So he can’t really feel any emotion. Is that so much of a disadvantage? Emotion often clouds the mind. Yes, It sometimes inspires good, but so can being observant and logical. And, all right, maybe he isn’t really a person. He isn’t an individual, exactly, since I’ve programmed into him all that I see is best in myself and my wife, uncle, and other friends and relatives, and all the great thinkers whose works I’ve read. So he’s not a genetic accident, a random hodgepodge of often conflicting personality traits we human beings are. But that’s why he always makes so much sense! Not just from my point of view, but others’. To tell the truth, Your Honor, I don’t really want an android to run this country. I want a human being to do it, a natural-born citizen we can be proud of. Someone who is truly representative of all that’s best in our people. There are people like that, I think, or at least who come close. But until one of them gets elected as president, I think we should let my creation govern. Yes, you have a point, Your Honor, in saying that I’m really the one running the country through this robot. But wasn’t it that way with most of our presidents? They had their backers and advisers. They had so many different people pulling them in different directions that they didn’t know who or what was right anymore. That’s what made even the best of them inconsistent and uncertain. But I notice that nobody has ever tried to punish those busybodies. At least my intent was not to seize power for power’s sake, or for petty advantages such as prestige and opportunities for corruption. It was to have order in this country at last. Notwithstanding that, I know what I did was dishonest and therefore wrong, Your Honor. So let us get on with the sentence. I won’t object to your destroying the robot, if that’s what you think is right. I only hope that we’ll be able to find a worthy human replacement for him soon. Someone who can maintain the peace, efficiency, and prosperity that we have achieved under my robot’s order. Yes, I am done and I apologize for talking so long. But still, I do not apologize for creating our very first android president. |