Roboethics

Dr. Payne was a genius. He was a brilliant inventor who had recently gained quite a bit of fame thanks to recent changes to the judicial system of his country. Corporal punishment had recently been allowed as punishment for many minor crimes.

Local jurisdictions were allowed to specify the exact manner in which this form of punishment was administered. A lot of jurisdictions trained personnel to carry out these punishments. However, an increasingly popular option was the use of spanking machines.

Crude spanking machines had existed for years prior to this, but Dr. Payne had invented what was widely considered to be the best spanking machine ever invented. Rather than a simple horizontal swing, this machine was capable of more complex movements. Additionally, it could adjust its movements depending on the type of implement it was equipped with. Accurate weight sensors helped it determine what sort of motion was needed.

Punishments were incredibly customizable. If an operator wanted a spanking to change the intensity or tempo as the spanking progressed, it was easy to program those instructions in. Preset instructions could also be added. For example, an operator could program a button for juvenile first offenders and have the punishment routine already ready to go at the press of a button.

Where Dr. Payne's machine really stood out though was in its advanced AI capabilities. The offender would have several monitoring devices attached to their body to check for things such as heart rate, breathing, sweat, and muscle tension. When using implements such as a cane, human personnel were trained to deliver the next stroke when the pain from the previous stroke was at its peak. However, they had to attempt to read body language in order to determine the optimal time to strike. Dr. Payne's machines were far more accurate in this regard.

Eventually, speculation started to arise about Dr. Payne. These machines of his were possibly too accurate. Experts wondered how he had been able to collect enough data for the machine learning capabilities to function correctly. He had been given a multi-billion dollar grant to fund his research, so naturally there was speculation as to what that money was spent on.

When government investigators started asking these questions, Dr. Payne revealed to them that he had been working on a companion project in secret that was now ready for use. He emphasized that this project was of a sensitive nature and that the public shouldn't be made aware of its existence due to ethical concerns. However, he offered to give a demonstration to members of the National Judicial Corporal Punishment Committee, or the "NJCPC" for short.

On the appointed day, a five-person delegation from the NJCPC, led by chairman John Lawrence, entered the laboratory of Dr. Payne and were greeted by the self-proclaimed "mad scientist" himself.

Rather than try to explain his project verbally, Dr. Payne simply had the delegation follow him into a room. Seated on a chair with a pleasant expression on her face was a young-looking woman with short blonde hair and stunning blue eyes. She was also completely naked. However, she showed absolutely no hint of embarrassment about her unclothed state.

"Hello, Elsa," said Dr. Payne. "We have some guests. Please introduce yourself."

Else stood up gracefully and walked over to stand beside Dr. Payne. "Hello, my name is Elsa," she said cheerfully. "I am an android created by Dr. Payne."

Every person in the delegation was visibly surprised. "An android?" asked Mr. Lawrence incredulously. "She looks human to me!"

Dr. Payne smiled. "She feels human too." He reached to his side and squeezed one of Elsa's breasts. She gave no reaction. "Go on, feel for yourself."

Clearly uncomfortable and wishing to maintain some proprietary, Mr. Lawrence opted to touch Elsa's face instead of a more intimate part of her body. "Her skin is so soft and warm!" he remarked. "I don't see how she could possibly be an android."

"It's because she has organic tissue," explained Dr. Payne. "I used real human stem cells to basically grow skin and muscle fiber for her. Her skeleton is artificial, but is made of a durable plastic material that weighs approximately the same as a real human skeleton. Her brain is a powerful CPU."

"As impressive as this is, I really hope you didn't spend grant money on this," said Mr. Lawrence. "I don't really see what it has to do with the goals of the NJCPC".

Without warning, Dr. Payne slapped Elsa across the face as hard as he could. Her head was violently jerked to the right. She immediately straightened her neck, but otherwise gave no reaction at all. Her cheek was reddened where she bad been slapped, but the redness faded away remarkably quickly.

"Turn around, Elsa," said Dr. Payne. "I don't see what slapping this Android has to do with my question," said Mr. Lawrence impatiently.

"I'm getting to that," said Dr. Payne. He slapped Elsa hard on her upper back. Again, she gave no reaction. "Notice that Elsa doesn't respond to pain," he said. "Now watch this." He gave her another full-force slap. However, this time he struck her buttocks. "Ow!" she cried out.

"I built a realistic network of pain receptors in her skin," explained Dr. Payne. "I managed to calibrate the quality and intensity of pain she experiences to be that of a typical human subject. This is actual pain of the human variety. However, I only embedded these pain receptors in her buttocks. Now are you starting to see the relevance here?"

Mr. Lawrence shook his head. "We aren't punishing androids in this country. We're punishing real humans."

Dr. Payne grinned. "Yes, but have you ever wondered how I obtained enough data for the AI in my spanking machines to be as good as it is? I had androids like Elsa here help me test extensively."

"That seems pretty unethical," said a committee member. "If it's true that she experiences actual pain, then it seems excessively cruel to test judicial level corporal punishment on her, especially as frequently as it sounds like you have done."

Dr. Payne shook his head. "Pain is just a data input like any other. It's the human brain that interprets this data to be a negative thing. However, I didn't program Elsa that way, so she interprets pain as neutral data."

"But she cried out when you smacked her!" said a committee member. Dr. Payne nodded. "I programmed her to react realistically to pain, but that doesn't mean she interprets it in a negative way. It's still just data input."

"So this is just a very expensive way of testing and training an AI system?" asked Mr. Lawrence. "I'll admit this is quite impressive work, but it's a bit excessive."

Dr. Payne smiled. "Oh, but you fail to see the bigger picture. This sort of advanced robotics will do far more for humanity and our government than the current limited use case I have been tasked with. But if you insist on confining success to such a narrow scope, then there is more to talk about there too. Tell me something. How widespread do you think these machines will eventually be ten years from now?"

Mr. Lawrence considered for a moment. "At the current rate of adoption, I would estimate that at least 60% of jurisdictions will be using your machines exclusively by that time."

Dr. Payne nodded. "Which means that 40% will still be using human personnel. That's alright. For a variety of reasons, there will be those who object to using machines for this purpose. Some people will insist that corporal punishment always be administered by a human, and that's certainly a very valid opinion to have. But how are these humans trained to do this job?"

"I'm not entirely sure how to answer that," replied Mr. Lawrence. "I know there are widely recommended training videos. Some jurisdictions even have simulations that they use. It just varies too broadly to give a definitive answer though."

Dr. Payne pointed to Elsa. "Well I would like to present the definitive answer. Elsa is better than any simulation. She is an invaluable training tool. Her flesh is real human flesh, but the subdermal synthesizers allow her to heal at a customizable rate. Additionally, she can be utilized as often as is needed, and she will never complain or put up any kind of resistance."

"Elsa is only one android though," said Mr. Lawrence. "Are you planning to mass produce her?"

"Already did," replied Dr. Payne. "The name 'Elsa' is merely the model designation. This particular unit is #18. There are thirty Elsa units currently in existence. More can be produced with sufficient funding if desired."

"I'm thinking about the other uses that such realistic androids can have," said a nervous-looking committee member. "How realistic are her more… intimate areas?"

Dr. Payne chuckled. "I see what you're getting at. I designed Elsa specifically for corporal punishment purposes, not for sexual usage. That being said, I do take pride in my attention to detail in my work. Elsa, show this man your lower orifices."

Elsa spread her legs and bent over. She then reached back and spread her buttocks apart wide, exposing the insides of both her rectum and vagina to the view of the committee members. "Go on, feel for yourself," said Dr. Payne.

The committee member who asked the question could barely contain his excitement as he knelt down and excitedly inserted his index finger into Elsa's vagina and felt around inside of her.

"The mucous membranes feel very real," he said. "That's because they are real," replied Dr. Payne. "It feels a bit dry in here though," said the committee member as he withdrew his finger and stood up.

"That's because she has no arousal response," said Dr. Payne. "Such a thing would be easy for me to design but that's not the purpose of the Elsa model. Now then, let's have a more relevant demonstration."

He pulled a small remote control out of his pocket and turned on a TV on the wall. There was a horizontal green line running across the screen. In the bottom-left corner were the words "Lexan Paddle #3". In the bottom-right corner were the words "Class G Felony, Repeat Offender". Elsa had released her buttocks and was now bent over touching the floor with her hands.

Dr. Payne walked over to a nearby table and retrieved a rather large lexan paddle. He handed it to Mr. Lawrence. "Give her a good whack with this."

Mr. Lawrence eyed the paddle suspiciously but took it. He adjusted his grip on the handle and walked over to stand to the left of Elsa's butt. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this," he said. "She hasn't done anything wrong."

"And she never will," said Dr. Payne. "However, this is the purpose I built her for. This is the only way for you to really gain an appreciation for what Elsa is. So go ahead and paddle her."

Mr. Lawrence sighed as he raised the paddle up. He gave her a firm swat, which elicited a yelp from her. A red line appeared on the screen. It was well below the green line. The word "Subpar" appeared on the screen in big bold letters.

Dr. Payne shook his head. "Not hard enough. Try it again." Mr. Lawrence gave her a harder swat. The red line was higher this time but still ended up being subpar.

"Here, I'll demonstrate," said Dr. Payne as he took the paddle and traded places with Mr. Lawrence. Dr. Payne moved the paddle back further and stepped into his swing. The impact of lexan on skin reverberated throughout the room. Elsa shrieked in pain much more loudly than she had previously.

The red line nearly overlapped with the green line and the word "Acceptable" appeared on screen. "It's also possible for the amount of force to be rated as 'Excessive'," explained Dr. Payne. "But I'm not physically able to do that. I would need to put her on a spanking machine to do that, but you get the idea. The computer I have connected to this TV is remotely accessing pain data from this unit and graphing it on screen. This is an excellent way to provide real-time feedback when training human personnel."

Dr. Payne gave Elsa another hard swat, and then another. As he was preparing to deliver another swat, Mr. Lawrence interrupted him. "Excuse me, but could we maybe observe Elsa on a spanking machine?"

Dr. Payne smiled. "I'll do something even better for you. I will lend you this unit so you can do all the tests you want. Hopefully, you will see the usefulness of this research and support continued funding for my laboratory."

"I'll take you up on that offer," said Mr. Lawrence. "I'll make sure we test this unit thoroughly and see how effective it is as a training tool."

Dr. Payne knew the truth though. He didn't expect this Elsa unit to be kept at NJCPC headquarters. He knew he had just bribed Mr. Lawrence, and he had a pretty good idea of what Mr. Lawrence actually intended to do with Elsa. That was fine with him though. Giving Mr. Lawrence a personal plaything would be a sure way to obtain more funding.

Several days later, Mr. Lawrence was sitting down in an armless chair in his basement. He was holding a wooden hairbrush in his hand. Elsa was standing there in front of him with a cheerful expression on her face.

"It's time for your spanking," said Mr. Lawrence. "Get over my lap." He needed this. After a bitter divorce and dealing with the attitude of his ungrateful kids, he needed to punish someone, and this android scratched that itch for him.

Once Elsa had obediently draped herself over his lap, Mr. Lawrence spread her buttocks apart and looked at her lustfully. After he exhausted his arm spanking her, he would use her in other ways. Dr. Payne would get all the funding he needed.