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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear
 |
| Lawyer Program | ||
| Software that could listen to legal argument. |
If you get in trouble, you'd better know the URL of a good lawyer program.
| Spivey held up one hand. "First I must tell you, Mr. Eng, that what we're about to discuss is highly classified. Top secret."
Logan winced. "I want my lawyer program." The officer smiled placatingly. "I assure you it's all legal..." |
| Technovelgy from Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
In the book, lawyer programs are also described as being good for investigating how to work with (and around) existing laws:
Not that fighting was strictly illegal. Some gangs with good lawyer programs had found loopholes and tricks. Ra Boys, in particular, were brutal with sarcasm... pushing a guy so hard he'd lose his temper, and accept a nighttime battle rendezvous or some suicidal dare...
It's not exactly the same, but a lawyer program has to talk to someone - or something. See the robot judge from Harry Harrison's 1959 story Robot Justice. That robot must be running some kind of legal software. Also, see the law clerk robot from Pohl's The Midas Plague.
As far as I know, the first "knowledge-based systems" for the law appeared in the early 1980's. The prize for earliest speculation on this topic goes to lawyers themselves, and dates from a 1949 paper by Lee Loevinger titled Jurimetrics. The Next Step Forward.
But even though no geeps were watching now, dozens must have recorded both parties converging on this spot... chronicle's they'd happily zap-fax to police investigating a brawl after the fact.
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and Technology by David Brin
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Lawyer Program-related
news articles:
- AI Software 'Robot' Lawyers Next Year
- 'Expert System' Found Practicing Law Without License
- FrontlineSMS Legal Justice Via Cell Phone
- Legal 'e-Discovery' Software Replaces Lawyers
- Law Firms To Undergo 'Structural Collapse' Due Artificially Intelligent Systems
- DoNotPay Lawyer Program Contests Parking Tickets
- 'Do Not Pay' Chatbots To Replace Law Firm Associates?
- Legal Profession Now Fairly Bristling With AI
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'... an artificial intelligence equal to the human.'
'Rayno folded up the microterm and tucked it back inside his jumper.'
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.'
'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.'
'Norman... had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems.'
You will note that HG Wells also figured out the aspect ratio of the future!
'As though a switch had been turned off, the pain stopped...'
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'
