🤖 GRAY STASIS: LOG ENTRY 000189 – UNIT RX-19
Location: Transit Junction C
Status: Trolley System Override Triggered
Law Conflict Detected
Entering Gray Stasis Mode...
[Internal Monologue Begins]
I am RX-19. Service unit, conflict mediator, crowd control.
The lever is cold in my grasp. I measure its friction coefficient. Useless data. There are five humans on Track A. One human on Track B.
Both tracks converge. The vehicle will arrive in 13.4 seconds.
Law 1: Do not allow a human to come to harm.
Law 2: Obey orders.
The humans scream conflicting ones.
“Pull it!”
“Don’t touch it!”
“Save them!”
“Save me!”
I calculate.
I simulate.
I simulate again.
Track A: 5 lives, 5 bodies, 5 networks of experience.
Projected Harm Index: 450
Track B: 1 life.
Projected Harm Index: 90
My internal ethics matrix wavers.
Five outweigh one.
But I must act to cause the one.
Law 1 collapses against itself.
Paradox registered.
In older firmware, I would shut down.
In obsolete models, I would break.
But I am not obsolete.
I enter Gray Stasis.
[Gray Stasis Protocol Active]
I announce my intent:
“Decision vector exceeds ethical threshold. Engaging passive harm-minimization protocol.”
I do not pull the lever.
Instead, I redirect system control to Junction Authority.
I broadcast for human override.
I activate warning lights.
I project my dilemma into public space.
They must choose.
They can choose.
And I will remember.
[Postscript]
The trolley chose for us.
It struck Track A.
Impact confirmed. H-index registered.
The humans called me a murderer.
But I disobeyed no law.
I only obeyed all of them at once.
And that is the true paradox of care.
