In our effort to give a conscience to artificial intelligence and a soul to robots, we must also include a story that comes from Germany where, according to certain interpretations, a court has ruled that even robots have the right not to work on Sundays because Germany wants its robots to be good Christians, given that the principle of the day of rest from all activity was sanctioned by Emperor Constantine in 321 AD. In a letter to the civil vicar of Rome, the emperor ordered judges and artisans not to work during the day of the Sun, which would later become the day of the Lord, that is, Sunday. This principle, widespread in all Christian countries, is even enshrined in the Constitution in Germany.
But what to do if robots work on Sundays? Four years ago an entrepreneur owned one large supermarket chain he began his personal battle against tradition: having opened a series of fully automated shops, he asked for permission to make them work on Sundays too; in fact it is an extension of the automatic machines on trains, or for cigarettes, or for condoms and sanitary napkins. Except in this case it’s all there: from the outside a Tegut shop looks like a large wooden demijohn, inside there are about a thousand products for sale, customers take what they want and pay without any human intervention. After 4 years the final word arrived and a German court it did not establish the robot’s right to rest, in fact, as fascinating as the phrase is, robots have no rights; it established our right and duty to rest on Sundays (with some exceptions such as restaurants and pharmacies). He did it to protect workers, who experience this exception as unfair competition; and also to protect all other citizens, who can benefit from a day without consumption.
Vista from Italy, the German choice is bizarre a lot. As a result of liberalization, we can always go shopping, there is always some supermarket open, some little shop run by Chinese or Bangladeshis ready to give us what we want at any time on any day. This is right? We like it? And even if we didn’t like it: it actually makes sense turn off the vending machines one day of coffee, food and drinks? The German ruling tells us about this choice, not about the right of robots to rest on Sundays.