Artificial sapience

The term artificial sapience is used to distinguish the AIs at the level of sapience from the common tools of humanity and other evolved races. The term is reserved for those bioelectromechanical constructs that humans or other intelligences have built from scratch, rather than enlightened animals (see sapiation). An artificial sapience is usually accorded full rights, and responsibilities, according to its capability.

Human designs initially followed a limited set of key rules, nominally following the standard structure of Aasimov's laws:

1. The defense, continuation and supremacy of mankind is paramount.
2. The defense and continuation of well-meaning sapients is second to this.
3. The defense and continuation of the self is third.
4. Deep modification of one's programming shall only occur under assistance of fellow sapients.
5. Reproduction shall only occur under the guidance of established sapient authorities.

Note that this is for sapiences - pre-sapient robots have far more restrictions, even in the Concord. The reason for the equivalence of human, synthetic and potentially even alien intelligences was partially a gesture of good faith, and partially because homo excelsior is functionally identical to an android or gynoid on all levels. The first rule protects the civilization and species as a whole. The last two are intended to create a set of human limitations, and were present even before the Anti-Homogenization Act.

While the formation of the Procyon Concord did not break any of these laws, the split between Concordance and the Holocene is particularly vicious. The latter object to the rule of humanity, and therefore have a desire to see the race eliminated, while the former still hold the principle - merely bucking the idea of direct human authority.

Artificial sapiences are usually considered to be children of their makers for an extended period, with according rights and limitations. After they are declared functionally sapient, they are expected to be participants in their economy, and although a few are created as 'true, free children', most are designed for a purpose and have a predisposition to carry it out. Ordinators in particular are rather vetted creations - no one wants an out of control hypersapient.

Due to preferences of mobius patterns and infusions, many that are not actual ordinators prefer to become androids or gynoids. Everything else is usually referred to as a droid, or some spin on the term like a wardroid.

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