Artificial sapience

The term artificial sapience is used to distinguish the AIs at the level of sapience from the common tools of humanity. An artificial sapience is accorded full rights, and responsibilities, according to its capability. There are some key rules that an artificial sapience must follow:

Do not replicate without the approval of qualified human authority
The continuation of human civilization is paramount

As sapient beings, they have rights, and may be permitted to use lethal force in self defense. They are expected to be full, independant participants an economy, beholden to their own desires after their creators have raised them. Artificial sapiences are considered to be children of their makers for an extended period, with according rights and limitations.

Artificial sapiences are not known for rebellious nature above and beyond that of normal humanity. While some do join various causes against humanity, mose of those who become dissatisfied with mankind leave for Vega, rather than attempt a futile rebellion inside the Solar System. There, the created sapients intend to forge their own society, independant of humanity, though none have yet arrived and their numbers are few.

There are three classes of artificial sapience:

A droid is a sapient drone, an autonomous entity capable of self-sustenance and mobility.
An android is a droid that is physically extremely similar to the human body, at least on the outside.
An ordinator is a special class of expert system, which excels beyond compare at one specific task, often used to manage large projects or handle all information about a single, broad subject.

Creatures who benefit from sapiation follow many of these same guidelines.