fandomhigh | Ethics [Monday, January 15, 5th period]

Precisely on time, Darth Vader swept into the room and slammed the door firmly behind him.

"Today we talk about lying," he said, his masked face scanning the faces in front of him as he prowled around the classroom.

"Everyone lies," he stated flatly. "To hide things, to manipulate others, to avoid...unpleasantness." There was a definite hint of scorn in his voice at that last example. "In class today, you are required to pair up and only tell the truth." His cape whirled behind him. "And I can tell if you are not. Such disobedience will result in detention."

He paused for a moment. "And I don't believe in that axiom where if you cannot say something nice, you don't say anything at all. I do not require you to be nice. I require you to be honest." He glanced down at the student roster. "If everyone comes to class today, there will be an odd number. That final person will be interrogated by me."

He crossed his arms over his chest, his mechanical breathing the only sound for a moment. "Name. Place of birth. Classes you are taking," he barked out. "Proceed from there."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So he knows you are insane!

Katara came up to Vader after class. "Did you blow up a planet?" she asked, getting right to the point.

Vader stared down at her. "I did."

He hadn't done anything to stop it, after all.

"Why?" she asked. She hoped the answer was going to be something rational even though she couldn't think of one.

"It was an interrogation tactic," Vader said. "We required information. We provided an incentive to tell the truth." Pause. "Then we followed through on our threat."

And if that wasn't a terrifying thought...

She stared, aghast. "And the lives of lots of innocent people were fair payment for this 'information?' I guess you did it because your focus determined your reality?" She sounded sarcastic at that last.

"Her focus determined that reality," Vader snarled. "If she had given us what we wanted to know, that wouldn't have happened."

Another pause. "Probably."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "And don't dare to judge my methods."

"You're blaming the person you were interrogating for your actions?" she asked in disbelief. "I don't have to judge your methods. It's obvious."

"Detention," Vader snapped.

He was in that kind of a mood today.

Marco is insane, there's no question about it. "Hey, um, Mr. Darth Vader, sir? Have you ever heard of a Yeerk?"

"No," Vader said. "Is there any reason I should have?"

Marco grinned. "Nah, just checking! Thanks, uh, nice ... mask." He headed out of the class fairly quickly.

Vader mentally added another name to the list of students he'd kill if he could away with it.

Irulan considered Vader, there was something that's been niggling Irulan since she met him. "Forgive me for my presumptiousness, Lord Vader but are you human?"

Thinking machines after all, are still forbidden in her world.

"Very presumptuous, Princess," Vader said, crossing his arms over his chest.

There was an awkward silence.

"And yes, I am. For the most part. There was an accident."

It was very clear he was in no mood to discuss it.

Irulan inclined her head. "I apologize but in my world there is a general paranoia of thinking machines and strict guidelines against their existence."

"Why?"

"Thinking Machines enslaved humanity for thousands of years, almost to extinction until a Jihad was launched against them and since then no machine was ever created in the likeness of the human mind." Irulan explained.

"What would you think of a human brain in a mechanical body?" Vader asked, thinking of long-dead Lord Grievous.

"The human enslavement started that way. A group of humans transferred their minds into a mechanical body and managed to take hold of a few worlds but they became complacent and gave more of their control to the computers until the computer became aware of itself and what it could do." Irulan paused. "It over threw its human masters and built itself an army of machines conquering not only a few systems but entire galaxies."

"We have not experienced that...difficulty," Vader replied. "But our droids are not generally self-aware."

"It may not be aware now but time will come when a machine will develop awareness and even personality quirks," Irulan cautioned. "From a small pebble it can turn into a landslide which is inevitable to stop. Machines can be unstoppable because they have no regard for their own lives."

"We memory-wipe our droids regularly to avoid such problems, Vader replied. "And living beings can be...modified to have the same lack of regard." Force knew the clone troopers were all a little out of their minds in that regard.

Irulan thought of the Sadaukars. "This is true, we have a force of soldiers who are as, if not more, ruthless and single minded as the Machines." She inclined her head, "Thank you for your time, Lord Vader. You have helped ease my mind."

Vader inclined his head, then busied himself with papers on his desk.

It was very obviously a dismissal.

Ethics [Monday, January 15, 5th period]

Talk to Vader after class

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Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class

Re: Talk to Vader after class