Legal Research

From Galaxy (1954)

By Simon Chester

We discovered an early description of a computerized online retrieval system in the short story “How-2″ by science fiction writer Clifford D. Simak. The story was published in Galaxy November, 1954.

One morning, a lawyer discovers a box with a do-it-yourself kit inside. Following the instructions for use, he builds a robot – one whose design happens to be misdelivered from the future. The lawyer is to appear in court. But his friendly robot spends the night before the trial building a new robot – a lawyer-robot.

‘”(A lawyer robot) with a far greater memory capacity than any of the others and with a brain-computer that operates on logic. That’s what law is, isn’t it – logic?’

‘I suppose it is,’ said Lee. ‘At least it’s supposed to be… It just wouldn’t work. To practice law, you must be admitted to the bar. To be admitted to the bar, you must have a degree in law and pass an examination and, although there’s never been an occasion to establish a precedent, I suspect the applicant must be human.’…

‘All they’d need to do would be read the books,’ said Albert. Ten seconds to a page or so. Everything they read would be stored in their memory cells.’…

Lee scrubbed his chin with a knotted fist and the light of speculation was growing in his eyes. ‘It might be worth a try. If it works, though, it’ll be an evil day for jurisprudence.’”

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).