The Principle of Reciprocity | Red Eden Codex
On Mars, there’s an old adage: what goes around comes around.
This nugget of ancient wisdom just so happens to form the central tenet of Martian civil code. Ask any Martian and he'll say it’s the only code a man needs.
Its application is quite simple. Don’t hit lest you be hit. Don’t steal lest you be stolen from. Don’t kill lest you be killed.
Some might balk at the idea that a man might be sodomized by a robot for the crime of raping, but most Martians would say it’s his just reward for spreading the love.
The idea that 'tit' can be answered with 'tat' stems from the principle of reciprocity, which states that the rules governing human behaviour must be reciprocal. In other words, if you expect others to conform to a set of behaviours, you yourself must conform to the same standards. If someone rejects these standards, you may also reject the standards with respect to that person.
For example, if you espouse freedom of speech, then you must respect other people's freedom of speech. If Bob tramples over your freedom of speech, then you may trample over Bob's freedom of speech without being accused of being a hypocrite. Without reciprocity, Bob would be free to attack your freedom of speech, yet you must uphold his. Thus, any code of conduct that does not allow for reciprocity is without teeth and is invalid.
So what does the Martian civil code look like in practice?
Should a dispute occur between two parties, an investigation would be required to collect the hard facts. Once all the facts are in, the two parties argue their case, often employing moral philosophers to pontificate on their behalf. Most cases are settled privately.
Not all disputes can be resolved privately. If the two parties cannot agree to a settlement, the next step would be to post their dispute on a public ledger called The Book of Debts. The Book of Debts is a distributed public ledger based on the Hashgraph algorithm that keeps track of all the details of a public case. Details include but are not limited to: 1) Identity of the defendant, 2) Identity of the plaintiff, 3) Summary of evidence and their physical location, 4) Relevant witnesses, and experts who can interpret the evidence, 5) Any relevant public cases in the past that may serve as a precedent, 6) The arguments put forth by both parties based on reason and evidence, 7) The expert opinion of notable moral philosophers and logicians, and 8) Comments by members of the public.
If there is overwhelming evidence against the defendant, then he is open to ‘collecting,’ meaning he is in violation of reciprocity and so his account on the metaphorical (and digital) Book of Debts must be balanced. This could mean he is owed a punch to the face if he is guilty of punching somebody else in the face. Alternatively, he can pay off the plaintiff in exchange for forgiveness. If he is forgiven, this does not mean he’s off the hook. Forgiveness, after all, is just a state of mind. Practically, if a plaintiff wishes to forgive the defendant, the plaintiff should not bring the case to the public in the first place. If the plaintiff has already done this and changes his mind, he may decline to testify against the defendant and would withhold any physical evidence against the defendant. In this way, it would be much more difficult for anyone else to justify ‘collecting’ from the defendant.
Once a case is recorded in the Book of Debts, and the defendant has bought the plaintiff’s forgiveness, there is always a chance the plaintiff would change his mind later on and demand for more money. This would be considered blackmail and a breach of reciprocity. Money was given in exchange for forgiveness, and so if the plaintiff were to withdraw his forgiveness, he would be guilty of causing the defendant to lose money. The plaintiff would now be liable to lose all the money he received in the first place.
Any member of the public can collect on a debt on behalf of the plaintiff. However, debt collectors must take care not to act on a case based on shoddy evidence otherwise they open themselves to collecting based on equally shoddy evidence. Once again, what goes around comes around. As such, professionals are usually the ones doing the collecting.
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