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The door, as is usual, opens on an alleyway in New York City. Overhead the sky is grey. The air is unseasonably warm; Ray wrinkles his nose. "It'd be nice if the planet could remember that this is November," he says. "Okay, Matilda. This is where I came in."

Comments

[gone_byebye]

"Math is different for squishies than it is for machines," says Ecto. "We're based on math. You're based on chemical reaction. You guys can't help it if most of you aren't as good as machines are, that's all. People like you and uncle Egon are kinda the exceptions."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Point." Tilda nods. "Which is why the only people I know who can do it are artificial intelligences, and your uncle Egon, apparently."

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"He says it runs in his family. I found a couple of papers on the Net from people named Spengler who wrote about number theory, but I can't download them because I don't have an educational institution account," Ecto says grumpily. "Dad says he's gonna try and get me one at Columbia, though."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"If mine were valid in this universe, I'd help," she offers. "Or I could see if they exist in my world."

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"Sure. Just don't bother with anybody named Oswald. He's not a mathematician, he's a historian. And a really gloomy one."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"I'll make a note."

One of her omnipresent notebooks is removed from her omnipresent grey bag (don't look to closely at what else is in there), and she writes: look up number theory papers by Spengler. Ignore Oswald.

"There! While I'm at it, anything else you've been having trouble with?"

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Ecto doesn't need to look, generally. If she wants to know she scans. You get a lot of information from the magnetic particles in ink. This time, she's not scanning, but we thought you should know.

"Macroeconomics," Ecto says after a second's thought. "I'm trying to get the hang of commodities trading. And stocks."

Ray, who's still over by Janine's desk, looks up in startlement. "What for?"

"I was gonna tell you, Dad. I've got stuff I wanna study and that's gonna need a lot of equipment and research people, and I kinda need money for that, so I'm trying to figure out how economic stuff works so that I can invest my allowance."

"But I don't give you an allowance."

"I was gonna ask you for one?"

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Mostly it would just be awkward to explain the fireworks. And the copy of the ancient Japanese scroll - she was checking to see if she really had seen it before!

Tilda scribbles it all down and giggles.

"You can borrow some of my pocket-money if you like," she offers cheerily. "I don't use it for much now I'm not in the bar as often."

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"No, it's okay, we'll set up an allowance," Ray says. "Besides, if Ecto here's going to trade on the stock market, she's going to have to do it electronically, not in cash."

"Yeah, I know," says Ecto. "Oh, and can I have an appointment with Louis Tully, please? I don't think I'm allowed to be my own accountant."

"I think something can be arranged, sure."

"Legally I'm not a person," Ecto says to Matilda. "I'm not even a corporation, so I can't own property. I figure I"m gonna have to go through Dad and Louis."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda hmphs.

"Something should be done about that," she says thoughtfully. "Refusing you legal personhood just because you're a car is silly."

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"None of the sentient computer systems in this world are legally people yet," Ray says quietly. "There are four others that Ecto knows of. One of them's insane and homicidal. The other three are all right, but they're all programmed AIs that had singular purposes implanted in them before their first activation. I'm not sure it's occurred to them to reach for personhood."

"Sano's an Asimov machine," Ecto adds. "It has to obey all three Laws."

"We're going to see what we can do about Ecto's situation, assuming that the people at this world's Knight Industries and FLAG Foundation don't object to the prospect," Ray says. "Since they're legally the owners of two of the other AIs, including the insane one."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"So you're like Mike, then." Brightly. "From The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. That's terrific. Good luck with the legal thing! Anything I can do to help?"

The Heinlein reference is a natural extension of the Asimov one, in her opinion.

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"Kinda more like the phone system in Dial F For Frankenstein," Ecto says. "When the whole thing woke up because it got so complicated, only nobody ever gave it directives at all because they didn't expect it to wake up."

Ecto's a Clarke fan.

"I don't know yet. Law's kinda funny. They don't have the same ones in my world that they do in others, necessarily."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"I could help you do the preliminary research," she offers. "If you need any sort of legal books that aren't available on the Internet. I love reading about new and interesting subjects."

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"That'd be good. I don't have a Lexis/Nexis subscription yet."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"A which?"

Yes, there are some things even Matilda doesn't yet know. Mostly they have to do with the Internet. (She prefers hard copy.)

[gone_byebye]

"It's a legal research service. And other things. But mostly legal," says Ecto. "All online stuff so that lawyers don't have to have whole law school libraries in their offices and law students don't have to fight over who gets the only issue of different journals. Big stuff."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Aha! That'd make sense." Tilda nods. "I'd be happy to do some reading on the subject for you, then, unless and until you manage one of those."

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"Okay!" says Ecto. "That would be cool. Thank you, Matilda."

"Definitely thank you," adds Ray. "If a book isn't available in digital form in one way or another, I have to read it to her aloud. I don't mind it at all when it's an interesting subject, but law textbooks give me headaches."

Ecto's tailpipe makes a noise very much like thbbbbt at her father.

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"There are no uninteresting subjects."

Tilda beams the beam of the hopelessly academic.

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"You haven't had to read about real estate law," says Ray.

"We can skip that at first," Ecto says. "Unless Louis says it's important for learning to invest."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"If you say so." She giggles. "I'll reserve judgment until I've read some myself."

Which of course means she's going to be looking up real estate law at the first opportunity just to see what all the fuss is about.

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"Patent law's better reading," says Ray. "At least then you have an excuse to go through other people's inventions and see if they've had any interesting ideas, even if you have to avoid stepping on their toes afterwards as a result."

"I get some really neat stuff from the Patent Office's computers," Ecto agrees. "Since they all have to be on public record and all."

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Brilliant." Tilda beams. "What sorts of things?"

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"Everything," says Ecto. "Designs for reflective armor for laser surgery patients and doctors, funky new ways of sewing up down comforters, devices for carrying spent nuclear reactor fuel rods safely, metal things that chefs rub on their hands to remove the garlic smell- all kinds of things!"