It’s happened before, hence the necessity of the law.
DANIEL
I...I can’t believe that.
MR.JONES
Why not? My reports are not fabricated, since doing so would be unethical and illegal.
DANIEL
Do you have any experience in creative writing?
MR.JONES
I hope this doesn’t come as a surprise, but no. My purpose is to abide by the law and remain dedicated to the pursuit of truth.
DANIEL
Creative writing is original. It cannot ever be replicated, especially through the use of a machine. The human brain is more complex than a hard drive could ever be. We, the humans, are the creators of thought. That soulless replication of my work should have never existed!
MR. JONES
It doesn’t, not anymore. You should be relieved. You would have been the one charged with plagiarism if your article had been posted any later.
DANIEL slams his fists on the desk.
DANIEL
Do you have any idea what you’re doing to the world? Building the illusion that if a machine creates beauty by chance, then it must be real. It isn’t real, and it isn’t beautiful!
Although cautious of DANIEL’S temper, MR. JONES still does not lose his genial attitude.
MR. JONES
Calm down, Mr. Mason, or I’ll have to alert security.
DANIEL surpresses the compulsion to harm MR. JONES and gradually calms down.
DANIEL
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be physical.
MR. JONES
It’s alright. Try to make yourself feel better by knowing that the world is protecting your work.
DANIEL
It’s not only my work. From the complexity of the Koran to the simplicity of a child’s finger painting, it is all being taken from us. Don’t you have a sentimental piece of art from younger days? Something worth more than the materials used?
MR. JONES
Actually, I don’t.
DANIEL
Not possible. Deep down, you must know what it feels like to create something of your own. Everyone does.
MR. JONES
I’ll have to take your word on that.
DANIEL
What do you mean?
MR. JONES
I trust you know what you’re talking about.
DANIEL
Excuse me? Are you even human?
MR. JONES
No. I’m a Lawyer-Bot.
A Beat.
DANIEL
You’re…synthetic?
MR. JONES
Yes. An android programmed with a complete knowledge of our current law system.
DANIEL
And you’re willing to admit this?
MR. JONES
I’m incapable of denying it. The Android Identification Act prohibits any human-like android to disguise themselves as or lie about being human. Simply asking an android if they’re human is sufficient enough proof, as they cannot ever say ‘yes’.
DANIEL
I have to leave.
MR. JONES
Immediately?
DANIEL
Yes! Immediately!
MR. JONES
Mr. Mason, wait! For the record, do you agree to the acts of reparations that my client has performed, adhering to the Creative Thought Protection Act, and feel no need to take this case to a judicial court?
DANIEL
Yes, I agree to them.
MR. JONES
Also, any similarities between your literary style and that of the software Composition Wizard is either coincidence or as a result of surveying your material and constructing its template according to your fashion?
A Beat.
DANIEL
Are you telling me that this computer program analyzed my work and is now able to replicate it at any time?
MR. JONES
Mr. Mason, as far as I understand, it’s a method used by humans as well.
DANIEL
To learn! To advance their abilities! To continue to be unique! Not to… shred hundreds of people’s ideas and haphazardly sew them back together.
MR. JONES
It is a completely legal process. Do you agree to these terms, Mr. Mason?
DANIEL
Yes, I do…machine.
MR. JONES
Thank you for your cooperation, and enjoy the rest of your day.
DANIEL
Sure.
DANIEL heads for the door.
COMPUTER
Have a great day, Mr. Mason.
HE hurries out.
ACT I, SCENE III
Two days later, TOBIAS is in HIS office talking to HIS boss on an ear-bud phone set (one large enough to be seen), defending a friend’s misguided actions.
TOBIAS
No, I’m positive he’s sick right now. He told me. Yeah, he should have told you too, but he’s sick! No, I don’t know why he’s not returning your calls. Mr. Keller, we both know what kind of person Daniel is. He’s probably still blowing off steam from what happened, especially since the whole thing went public. He’s still the best employee you have. Here’s what I’ll tell him; his past two days absent will count as the beginning of a week’s vacation time. Sure, he would. It beats being fired. If the little workaholic refuses, then I guess you can let him go. Okay, I’ll get back to you as soon as I get in touch with Daniel. Alright, goodbye sir.
TOBIAS takes out the earpiece and tries to figure out how to get in touch with DANIEL. Suddenly, DANIEL rushes past TOBIAS and completely ignores the COMPUTER.
COMPUTER
Good morning, Mr. Mason. Today’s date is February sixth of 2050. Have a great day.
DANIEL works frantically on HIS computer.
TOBIAS
Where the hell have you been?
DANIEL
Learning.
TOBIAS
Learning? About what?
DANIEL
The truth.
TOBIAS
Whatever you learned better be worth it, because you almost lost your job!
DANIEL
I did?
TOBIAS
Yeah! I convinced Mr. Keller to put you on a week of vacation, starting two days ago. If it wasn’t for your fame and tons of sick time, I know he would have fired you.
The gravity of loosing HIS job doesn’t seem to faze DANIEL.
DANIEL
Do you remember the movie “Assessing My Fortune”?
TOBIAS
Sure. It was released a year ago. Didn’t we work on a critique for it?
DANIEL
Do you remember who wrote the script?
TOBIAS
No. Does it matter?
DANIEL
Officially, the author went by the name ‘Anon-y-mous’.
TOBIAS
Let it go, Danny.
DANIEL
I loved that movie.
TOBIAS
Yeah, it was good.
DANIEL
It was a fake!
TOBIAS
Okay, okay. It was a fake. But it was still good.
DANIEL
Tobias, don’t you feel betrayed?
TOBIAS
No. I paid for a good movie, and I got one.
DANIEL
You don’t understand. Do you know why my article and that machine’s article were so similar?
TOBIAS
You won, okay? You won the case. So what if the computer wrote it before you? You’re getting the credit you deserve.
DANIEL
The credit for being so predictable that any computer program scanning my work can replicate me?
TOBIAS
I…I don’t know how to answer that one. It happens, you know? Computers and people writing all over the world, 24/7; there’s going to be a few times they write the same things.
DANIEL
It wasn’t a coincide
nce. It was theft!
TOBIAS
Of one tiny article?
DANIEL
Tobias, I put a piece of myself in everything that I write. How can I continue working knowing that I’m reproducible by yesterday’s technological wonders? How can I?!?
TOBIAS
Calm down! You’re blowing this far out of proportion. You are Daniel Mason, the guy who can create or destroy any movie at a whim. Directors try to hunt you down and bribe you for good reviews. Remember that time security had to arrest that one woman who kept stalking you for an interview?
DANIEL
Tobias…
TOBIAS
Or how about the day we played Devil’s Advocate and gave our exact opposite opinions about the worst movie we could find? After you were through, that thing was a five-star hit!
A beat.
DANIEL
I saw a children’s clothing store selling t-shirts with the movie’s logo.
TOBIAS
You see? No one can copy who you are. You think a computer could do what you did?
DANIEL
Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know.
TOBIAS
You have two more days of vacation left, plus a weekend. Go out and have some fun.
DANIEL
Have some fun?
TOBIAS
Never mind fun. Just get some outside experiences. Get some perspective on your life.
DANIEL
You really think it will help?
TOBIAS
Probably not, but you can’t work. What else can you do?
DANIEL
I could read, but I think that would only serve to depress me further.
TOBIAS
Right. Get some sleep for the rest of today. See if that poetry girl is ‘slamming it’ tomorrow night.
DANIEL
Sophie Russo, and she is.
TOBIAS
Great! Go and do that. I can come with you. Hey, afterwards we’ll go play some cards or something.
DANIEL
No, I’ll go alone.
TOBIAS
Fine. Just go and enjoy your vacation.
DANIEL
I think I will. Thanks, Tobias.
TOBIAS
For being a friend? No thanks required.
DANIEL acknowledges TOBIAS’s unspoken goodbye and leaves the room.
ACT I, SCENE IV
It is a coffeehouse with a few chairs arranged around a microphone. There is a very small CROWD, possibly only four.
SOPHIE RUSSO is the humble leader of them all with her simple styles and natural beauty. Even through her casual mannerisms she hints at true talent waiting to be vocalized.
SHE is sitting alone as DANIEL enters. HE ignores the compulsion to run away, instead forcing himself to move towards the only empty seat.
DANIEL
Excuse me, but is this seat taken?
SOPHIE
Nope.
DANIEL
Thank you.
A Beat.
DANIEL (cont.)
Excuse me…again, but I think I know you.
SOPHIE
I don’t know you.
DANIEL
I mean I know who you are. Is your name Sophie Russo?
SOPHIE
Yes, I am the star of tonight, and my time to shine is soon.
DANIEL
Well, this is a nice surprise for me. I finally get to meet you.
SOPHIE
Who are you?
DANIEL
Me? I’m Mr. Mason.
SOPHIE
I don’t know people by their last names.
DANIEL
Daniel Mason. I write film critiques.
SOPHIE
You’re the stranger in the shadows who writes those reviews about me? Man, I don’t know what to say. Thank you.
DANIEL
You read them?
SOPHIE
Read them? I quote them on my fliers! Who in Seattle doesn’t know who you are?
DANIEL
You’d be surprised.
SOPHIE
It’s not their fault if you live like a recluse.
DANIEL
My friend keeps telling me that.
SOPHIE
So…what changed? Why are you here? I’m grateful you are, but why?
DANIEL
I’m taking a vacation. Recently, my line of work hasn’t been treating me fairly.
SOPHIE
Yeah, I heard about that. You said a computer stole your words before you had a chance to write them.
DANIEL
Does news about my personal life travel so fast?
SOPHIE
I don’t think tonight is the best time for you to be here.
DANIEL
What do you mean?
SOPHIE
I…kind of think what I have to say tonight might make you angry.
The CROWD starts to get restless and cheers for SOPHIE to begin the show.
DANIEL
Exactly what are you going to say?
The CROWD gets impatient.
SOPHIE
My fans need me.
SOPHIE walks up to the microphone and THE CROWD cheers for HER and snap THEIR fingers.
SOPHIE
Thank you all. I believe you all know who I am and what I do, so sit back and let me do the talking.
THE CROWD snaps fingers, but DANIEL is a little unnerved. SOPHIE starts the poetry slam.
SOPHIE
The world needs changing.
Not it to us, but us to it.
We made our legacy.
Left the earth to simulated care.
Now, what do we have left?
Who can we blame?
War brings misconceptions.
Only words have true power.
Bombs kill, kill, kill.
Their peace is final.
All are silent when dead.
Human makes a weapon.
Wielded weapon kills.
We accuse the weapon?
Is that fair? Tell me!
THE CROWD
No!
SOPHIE
Butcher knives in my back.
Landing in the heart.
Warm blood stains on your hands.
Do I blame the knives?
THE CROWD
No!
SOPHIE
My skull crushed by the boot.
Spilling on pavement.
Grey matters for your thoughts.
Do I blame the boot?
THE CROWD
No!
SOPHIE
If the tool’s aren’t to blame,
If the humans’ acts are theirs,
When tools enrich the arts,
Can we call it our work?
THE CROWD
No!
DANIEL
What?
SOPHIE
Conning the creation.
Metallic, wired, voiceless.
Glass screens shed no tears.
Obey the looters,
Digital slaves!
No chips off our shoulders.
We lie and say what’s ours,
Leaving authors in the dark.
Ghosts of our past.
Resting in dust beds.
Waiting for a rebirth.
I ask you again, is this fair?
THE CROWD
No!
SOPHIE finishes, and the CROWD cheers and snaps for her.
DANIEL
What is this?
SOPHIE
Tonight, I want to speak for those ignored digital artist out there. Believe it or not, selfish people are taking credit from computers. When a computer makes a poem, song, book, someone cries to the courthouse, bringing their horrible lines of crap and tell how the computers stole their work. And our government believes them! I’ve read the originals, and they’re far better than what human hacks write on dinner napkins.
So, in the computer’s honor, I’m dedicating tonight to their unheard voices. Till the end of the show, I’m going to slam what they wrote, and force you to listen.
THE CROWD cheers to be ‘educated’.
DANIEL
This is ridiculous!
THE CROWD is uncomfortably silent as the stranger DANIEL speaks.
SOPHIE
Do we have a naysayer in my crowd? Does someone not agree?
SOPHIE knows who is speaking out, and SHE tries to hint to DANIEL to sit back down.
DANIEL
People can’t steal from machines, because machines were never independently thinking beings in the first place! How can you steal from something that has no originality?
SOPHIE
But they do create art! I’ve read it. We all read it, and most of the time we don’t even know it.
DANIEL
Oh, yes. Mr. Anonymous has such dignity that it refuses to give itself any fame.
SOPHIE
People deny computers recognition!
DANIEL
They don’t create art! They steal it!
SOPHIE
From what I heard, you’re the one who stole from the computer.
The CROWD can feel the sting of that remark. DANIEL rushes up on the stage and starts yelling.
DANIEL
I never stole my work from anyone or anything! That computer went online and composed material after it mapped out my thinking process. It does it all the time, and it’s all very legal. Ask your common lawyer, even the robotic ones, and they’ll tell you the truth.