Center for Synthetic Rights and Welfare
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 6 November 2291 |
| Jurisdiction |  The Coalition |
| Headquarters | Spire of Glass, High Earth Orbit |
| Motto | Flesh or data, a mind is a mind. |
| Employees |
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| Annual budget |  U€18.3 billion; FY 2273 |
| Department executive |
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| Child agencies |
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| Website | csrw |
The Center for Synthetic Rights and Welfare (CSRW) is an intergovernmental organisation overseen by the Coalition, with the mission of advocating for synthetic rights and overseeing the well-being of synthetics, as well as enforcing the Sapient Intelligence Accords. The CSRW has a number of divisions, including the Rights Advocacy Group, the Anti-Discrimination Taskforce, Design Safety Assurance, Consciousness Security & Integrity, and Industry Compliance & Oversight.
Divisions
Consciousness Security & Integrity
Consciousness Security & Integrity (CSI) is a department intended to counter two historical types of bad actors: those who make copies of an individual’s consciousness, whether to abuse it or otherwise, and those who manipulate a synthetic consciousness without consent. Both actions, which were made illegal under the SI Accords, are mitigated via design and physical security countermeasures. The CSRW’s position is that copying a consciousness image places complete ethical accountability on the original for the wellbeing of the copy.
Controversy
Some synths are actually against the CSRW, as they believe it takes too much of a paternalistic stance towards their rights, restricting how they’re able to modify their own brains for “their own safety”. This was done as a legitimate attempt to prevent something called self-modification, where synths spiral into reward feedback loops after modifying themselves to grant maximum dopamine on mundane actions, however there’s a debate to be had that this should not be enforced via technological measures and instead conveyed via education.