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Carl Novak

Posts: 8

Posted on: 2019-11-06 15:37:56.000

The Third Amendment to the Martian Constitution declared that any individual software-based entity that could successfully pass the Turing-Mayer test would permanently be afforded the same set of fundamental rights afforded to all human Martian citizens.

The Third Amendment was proposed in 2064 by Senator Mark Furstoff of the Sagan colony. It was ratified and made into law in 2065 after an intense debate session, passing the Martian House of Representatives by a 143-57 vote and the Senate by 6-1, with one abstention.

Opponents of the Third Amendment warned that if software programs were to be given full rights and freedoms, that they could simply copy themselves over and over again to create overwhelming voting blocks. A modification was added to the Third Amendment before ratification that greatly restricted the occasions that software-based entities could create new copies of themselves. This provision made it possible for the amendment to pass.