Laws and Magic

[Steve]

Homonculi and fetches raise another issue, the cost of labor. Assuming a homonculus is bright enough to learn a trade, they could replace human workers on assembly lines and performing low-skill labor, such as harvesting crops.

 

Perhaps laws could be passed forbidding them from performing certain types of labor? If an auto plant could have its entire blue-collar staff replaced by Homonculi who were just as able to do the work as humans, costing much less than a human worker did, how might people react?

[Markdoc]

How would they react? By setting them on fire, I'd guess. It's not something people would accept calmly, and I am guessing that laws would be passed forbidding it - I'm guessing using slavery laws as a basis. Even pro-business politicians are unlikely to support a technology that could make vast swathes of their voters permanently unemployable.

 

Cheers, Mark

[Steve]

In the case of field workers, I'm wondering if the result might be different. If a field worker Homonculi can do everything a human could in picking crops and the like, it would dry up the demand for low-cost field labor. If they only did the jobs that humans don't like doing, they might be more accepted as laborers.

 

Different countries would likely have different laws regarding Homonculi labor. The question of AI would have to be dealt with. If Homonculi don't have souls, being creations of magic, would people feel comfortable having them as property?