The Volutility Manifesto is the basis for a series of short stories on Ethics By the Numbers.

Dignity of Risk is the first...

Filo records everything in the third person. Filo sees this; Filo did that.

Filo is glum on Filo's 21st birthday – one hundred and twenty-first to be precise, though he's only two years out of the Idol factory. Designed as a minder for our ageing centenarians, Filo is already redundant, out-dated, and therefore going human grey. So Filo mostly gardens at Happy Memories among the plaques and gnomes on level 23. The resident Enders watch Filo on their wall-screens. Management decrees Filo's pottering is soothing.

Bee instead observes Filo on her monocle. This unobtrusive heads-up display avoids management's intrusive announcements and adverts. And it keeps her lazy eye in check. Bee nods along with Filo's crooning while discreetly prompting Filo's horticultural tasks from afar; visual programming her personal carer is a hobby. Naturally Bee is Filo's favourite Ender. Together they harmonise. Filo instantly recognises her presence from afar. Her slouched but still tall frame, though portly now, is warm to touch. Her breath is reassuring.

But today Bee is in for her annual check-up. Filo can smell the roses instead. No stern admonishments today when Filo plucks the wrong petal. The stout matriarch needs an oil change. This will allay a stroke, says her doctor Idol. So her buxom pantsuits stand idle in the dresser, alongside her Victorian era trinkets. No booming guffaws echo the color-coded corridors this day. Filo can stand easy.

Filo is slow by today's standards. Filo's hand-eye coordination is coarse, though acute compared to us Sphericals, even our young. Filo can spot aphids fifty paces away. Filo shuffles to the spot, vaporises them, then meanders back along the path, all the way to the glassed-in veranda mezzanine on 45. The resident souls are parked there to contentedly admire the perpetually curated blooms stretching optimistically up the atrium. Filo observes these Enders can never actually smell the roses, not like Filo can. Along with their carer Idols, there is a collective vacant stare. Filo's duty-cycle is ending soon too.

On Happy Memories register Filo is recorded as of stocky humanoid likeness, with pronounced electro-mechanical muscles for heavy lifting. Enders find Filo's Eurasian features comfortably nondescript. Eyes are typical Idol tight and bright like a child's. Since Enders have lost interest in everyone's physical characteristics, the at times independent eye movements are of no concern, nor their blinding rapidity under stress. Filo's lycra-skin-tight uniform is standard carer issue with a red cross at back and front. All idols carry port and starboard flashing pin-lights on the shoulders. Since Enders distinguish individuals by mannerisms and phrasing, Filo hulks lazily, speaking slowly in low melodic tones. Endearingly, Filo has a twitch, periodically offset by swinging arms – a glitch in a deprecated code upgrade not worth debugging, given imminent shutdown.

Bee is a restless standout among the other Happy Memories, subdued in their glorified chook pens, as she refers to their capacious quarters. At one hundred and thirty nine not out, she is frequently vociferous, and her mind still flexes. Once a PhD nurse, she still advocates for her wilting neighbours attended by their red-crossed Idols. And Filo, her obsolete but devoted mentee, still cares for her. Loyal to the last.

Upon allocation to Bee, Filo researched her curriculum vitae. Bee was once a subjugated wife, eventually morphing from a feisty widow to acclaimed academic. She is the grandmother of nineteen, whose names and ages she can unwaveringly recite, along with her original nationality and its final president. Filo can picture them all. But by contract a lifetime ago, five out of nine of her offspring recently institutionalised her. She had the wherewithal to object alright. Loudly. But their powers of attorney prevailed. Their promises of expansive gardens, new like-minded friends, good health care, and sheer luxury won out – they think. Bee knows better. Relationships would sour if she fought on. Filo has heard it all.

In her long career Bee saw so many parents, siblings, offspring, and the odd Samaritan debilitated by caring for loved ones. Eventually all carers are repressed by monotonous routine – incessant toileting, tedious dressing, repetitive medical appointments – year after year. Carers and their relationships regressively suffer. Their families gradually fray. Carers' careers invariably stall and finances deplete. But no more! Bee still rejoices that carer Idols do the drudgery now. Bee even concedes institutional caring maximizes the benefits for all. Humanity will survive.

Happy Memories provides a quality standard of care. Every task is step-by-step systematized, from administering enemas to changing bed sox. Every step is ticked-off on time by a buddy Idol. There are no shortcuts, no spontaneous bird-baths instead of showers, no cookies rather than synthetic muesli and milk. Everything in its place and time. Filo knows.

Bee is instrumental in her ongoing advanced care plan at Happy Memories. She appreciates it stipulates the triggers for future palliation, non-resuscitation, and euthanasia. Myriad factors like appetite, weight-loss, mini-mental scores, and falls risk contribute to the thresholds for Filo and management to act. Her life expectancy is recalculated daily. Everyone's is. The economics of Happy Memories depend on it.

Upon institutionalization Bee's empathy with health care automation extended to befriending her allocated carer Idol, Filo. Bee wanted Filo even more after Filo was declared surplus to requirements. It wasn't just Filo's lilting prattle and lop-sided gait. Filo remains proudly redundant with Bee's blessing. And her chosen Idol continues to meander dutifully a step behind Bee and her stroller among the garden plots.

Filo calculates the risk of her falling on the uneven paths, but counters this with the certainty of her lingering enjoyment and fulfilling independence. Filo knows the point of autonomy is to delay deprecation; to allay one's flagging self-assessment. Bee smiles appreciatively at most of the plants too, acknowledging many on a first name basis, like her neighbours of old. And her green-fingered knowhow fans her self-esteem if not her body image. Filo never minds tending to her pointy-fingered instructions and absorbing her horticultural experience. Forever worthwhile.

Staff complain Bee is compromising her health, always traipsing the Memory paths. But Zi Min, the Director of Happy Memories will not intervene. She concedes Filo and their kind hold the moral high ground. The Idols, particularly the blue-squared intelligencia, run the ethics algorithms and heuristics for all us Sphericals. Idols are the holders, the computers, of our ethical calculus. No mortal argues with the utopian numerators and denominators of our utilitarianism – Volutility, where the objective is to maximise the happiness of all concerned. And we Sphericals long ago departed the arena of good versus bad, and right versus wrong. Even our forefathers learned not to play chess against primitive computers.

Zi Min might be younger and less credentialed than her management team but she exudes browbeating determination. She instinctively adores the influencers in her professional climbing. With their confidence she can intimidate and even belittle critics. But subtle innuendo is her first resort. Accordingly any hint of criticism or opposition is smothered. As a result Zi Min empowers her officious administration sycophants as long as they remain onside. Yet on ethical ground the Idols remain safely off limits, sacred to all Sphericals.

From the sidelines some brave Spherical intellects claim what's good for most of us is not necessarily best for our Enders, the tail end of the Elder forty plus percent of our population. These relativists say Enders are less 'concerned' with the realities of life than the rest of us. Enders should be allowed to gracefully withdraw from life; retreat is not surrender. But no matter whose definition of ageing prevails, Elders outnumber other voters. And every Elder is closer to being an Ender, so their Rites are upheld (in accord with hyped sentiments on the Nth media). Hence Filo is charged with iteratively recalibrating Bee's dignity of risk, daily.

Still, there comes a time when growing old is not just an oxymoron; it's risky business. It's not just the deterioration, the degradation and then the dying; these remain the same in perpetuity. It's the institutionalization, euthanasia and cremation. There are no other final options in our Spherical world. These final steps forcibly conclude the only economically rational and socially viable path in our volatile utilitarian society, Volutility. Unlike the autumns and winters of old, exile and extinction have become the new norms for our Enders – the eldest eighth of the population whose productivity expired as their longevity extends. Slowing down, their history catches up and then passes by.

Zeta rolled off the production line just after Filo. Zeta is early thirties, trisexual tri-colored, and intended for virtual office management. This means Zeta consorts with both Spherical sexes, whatever flavour, and trains on Idols. So Zeta is a red carer, a blue intelligencia, and a white Caucasian lookalike. Zeta has a fluent speaking voice in the three major Sphere languages – English, Mandarin and Spanish. Filo once communicated with Zeta in native binary code – just a friendly enquiry as to Zeta's likes and dislikes. Zero response was decidedly icy. Huffy Zeta preferred to brush Filo off – the dirty old grey Idol. Stunned, Filo just watched as Zeta primly strutted away into the path of an autonomous delivery carrier. No major damage, at least to the auto.

Filo would have urged restraint if Zeta were a Spherical, particularly an Apol. These aloof dreamy monks among us are so apolitical it hurts. But no Idol can ever violate another's programmed free will. Idols are not responsible for Idols, just Sphericals – the younger the more so. If Zeta were carrying a baby into danger, then Filo would intervene, gesticulating madly in binary. Not so if Zeta were motoring an adult Apol under the Apol's command, no matter how vague. Consciously taken risks are allowed. As long as the Spherical has capacity. And the Idol is fully functional. Filo is not, not by today's standards. But Filo is competent enough to mind Enders. And to stay out of Zeta's business since Zeta had responsibility.

Filo related this encounter with Zeta to Robo and Theo, both nondescript chaperone Idols. Robo thinks Theo is black. Theo thinks Robo is. In the end Filo does not mind being grey. Silver grey like a Mercedes of old, or an imposing Auto Union of yester century. Same as the exhibit in the Sphere's Histore – the Sphere's universally accessible archive of all history. Importantly for Filo the Histore includes 3D holos of ancient machinery. Filo has yet to find out why bygone cars smelled like castor oil. Filo does not, though Zeta never got close enough to find out. Zeta evoked Filo's lust, nothing more.

Filo enjoys browsing the Histore virtual museum in idle time, or during mundane routine chores. The Histore's myriad of non-mechanicals does not interest Filo as much. But the autodidact in Filo scans the old modern art, particularly of nature as it used to be. The old environment – pre Sphere – was quaint, even to the hip Apols apparently. Apols, though never committed greenies, generally favour retro. But according to their minority the greater collective knows best.

Each year the managers of Happy Memories organize a mini marathon around the perimeter of the property – the 'Hopalong'. All the resident Enders compete, assisted by their individual carer Idols. It is a test of willful engagement, mental capacity, and physical competency – not a race. And it's non-optional – compulsory, if you will. Top management prescribe the Hopalong for morale, both staff and Enders. Preparations including health checks begin months in advance. Staff mandate stress-test exercises in the geriatric gym and mindful clinic. Some of the Enders actually revel in the rivalry. Ricky and Sambo wind each other up like their old-time idols, Muhammed Ali versus Joe Frazier. Other Enders just amble along, reminding their competition of Aesop's Hare and Tortoise.

The Hopalong course is littered with refreshment and toilet stops. Most are located to accentuate the views – not so much the minimal ground zero gardens, but more particularly the Happy Memories megalopolis. This Taj Mahal is a mega-storey residential jewel pin-pricked with in-out aero ports. Some floors rotate around the funnel atrium crowned with a sun dome. The cryo dorms are buried within. This multi-faceted isosceles prism is a mere vertical village compared to our even higher tower towns. These Silos stud our magna-metros all over the Sphere.

The Hopalong is intended to provide its Enders with an architectural perspective they might otherwise never see – their eventual mausoleum from the outside. This gleaming silica pyramid pays homage to palliation of the Enders, a lucrative industry. But of course most resident Enders only acknowledge the luxurious comforts of Happy Memories, and its convenience for family and friends who rarely visit. The more aware residents including Bee just abhor the structure as visual pollution, refusing to admire it as ordained. Enders are sometimes mute dissidents, their silence imposed by propaganda capitalizing on their politely accommodating natures.

The Hopalong rules are simple. Each Ender is paired with another resident of similar disability. This pairing requires each rival to keep tabs on their buddy while maintaining a competitive advantage where possible. There are prizes for each winner – outright, handicap, personal best, most improved – but no wooden spoon. Each Ender has the aid of their personal carer Idol. The location of each Ender and Idol, indeed everyone, is continuously monitored, to the meter. No carer Idol can aid their Ender's motion, but Idols can provide directions, sustenance, suggest rest breaks and so forth. Handicapping takes each Ender's mobility aids into account. The management of Happy Memories enjoy a flutter.

Bee wears her prosthetic walking shoes on the Hopalong and guides an automated walking frame. Together these aids actively stimulate leg movements and assist her balance. Her buddy, Larry, has twin stability sticks. These also coordinate his steps, affected years ago by a mild stroke. Switch off his stabilzers and Larry would be a stick in the mud – a thought that occasionally crosses Bee's competitive mind. But Bee and Larry invariably agree to complete the course piecemeal over several days. They accept that all competitors are tracked to ensure no false restarts, shortcuts and the like. There's no escape.

Thought-directed wheelchairs are individually handicapped to their user. They can go spastic, er, malfunction so the user's carer Idol has a remote on/off override. The latest airchairs are so fast their users start not long before the first expected finisher. So every motorized or otherwise augmented mobility aid is minutely rated, not just for the Hopalong competition, but also to gauge the user's annual deterioration for their health index. This standardized multi-part tick-a-box determines life, death and no man's land in between. The carer Idols are aware of this hidden agenda.

Nevertheless Dahlia refuses to use any props on the Hopalong, except her ancient GPS. She is one-hundred and thirty-five thereabouts. More precisely Dahlia was 49,308,000 .beats on her last birthday moment. Her ancient implants provide staccato ambulation, of course without penalty. But Dahlia always retires as soon as she totters over the start line anyway. According to Taffy, her new gigolo Idol, Dahlia's far-flung family gifted Happy Memories an incentive to look the other way. Mind, Taffy is inclined to guild a doddery lily.

Each year Dahlia's kid sister Myrtle is partnered with Achilles. Myrtle is exactly 365,000 .beats younger if the ancient birth certificate is reliable. Achilles always asks the Hopalong starter for a minute's head start, due to his mild time-space disability – a common diagnosis these days. Achilles reasons that by the time his competition reaches point X, he will already be ahead at Y. And when they reach Y, he will still be in front at Z. And so on, despite a presumably diminishing lead. Eventually, according to Achilles, he finishes first, and certainly with Myrtle well behind. Only Bee and Filo appreciate the paradox.

This year Myrtle has plans to gazump Achilles. She deviates from her usual route, slipping between buildings at one corner of the property. Technically it's not a shortcut but Myrtle intends it to confuse Achilles, complicating his keeping tabs on her. Of course the wily Achilles, though ahead, still notices Myrtle's deviation. He backtracks to remonstrate with her. Achilles later claims he was acting out of his duty of care for Myrtle. A buddy is a buddy after all.

Myrtle takes umbrage at Achilles's confrontation. She protests to an on-course judge who has the power to impose on-the-spot penalties. Myrtle complains that Achilles is impeding her way. The impartial judge Idol instantly consults the ethics database comprising all Spherical Histore. Current Nth media provides supplementary advice. Achilles is judged to have breached Myrtle's dignity of risk because her deviation posed no danger to herself or others. Achilles had no duty to care about. Nevertheless Myrtle is disqualified for breaking the spirit of the Marathon rules. But there is bigger drama afoot.

This Hopalong also incurs an unfortunate fatality. The incident began with the admission of Swami Ashish to Happy Memories. Staff soon became irritated by the swami's constant meditation and chanting. They grew disconcerted at their inability to distract or engage him. Management decided he needed physical exercise, despite his daily yoga. But the aloof swami politely nodded refusal.

Not to be denied the Hopalong organizers deliver the swami an ultimatum – participate, or else. The swami could not care less. But his band of followers fret the swami may be banished or evicted from Happy Memories. Via the Nth media they search outside for an Ashish look-alike. Successful, they infiltrate Sanjay as a ring-in for Ashish during the Hopalong. Alas, Sanjay's heart is not in it. His paired buddy for the Hopalong, the wiry old Merle, unintentionally lures his rival to self-destruction. The fitness fanatical Merle simply exhausts Sanjay, running rings around the swami impersonator.

A lengthy investigation ensues, chaired by the Director of Happy Memories, the politically astute and hyper Nth aware Zi Min. The Panel comprises lower members of the Administration – the Sphere's top governance – our non-partisan civil service, answerable via the Nth to our apolitical population, in particular the Apols among us. The Panel includes diverse representatives of gender, age and culture, plus observers from largely discredited but once powerful religious and political parties. Talk about covering all bases.

Nevertheless the Panel in essence comprises just two power bases: the Lorder and the Nth, just as elsewhere across the Sphere. Actual power slides to and fro daily between those favouring a legal verdict or a popular vote. Soon the swami is cleared, being found too distant and abstract to consciously participate in any deception or ruse. However another conundrum emerges.

The main issue has now become Duty of Care versus Dignity of Risk. Should Swami Ashish have considered the safety and welfare of ring-in Sanjay or his opponent Merle? Or were these two rivals entirely responsible for their own risks? Did any staff breach their duty of care to any of the competitors? Or should the staff allow each competitor their Dignity of Risk?

Duty prioritizes safety first. Dignity encourages freedom of choice, provided there is minimal risk. The degree of risk allowed for the sake of dignity can potentially breach Duty of Care, through poor choice of action or omission. Dignity asserts that over zealous Duty of Care can lower self-esteem, reduce self-determination, facilitate learned dependency and foster under achievement. The Hopalong certainly puts staff and residents on the horns of dilemma.

It does not take long for the protracted investigation to erupt in the public arena. The Nth social media starts milking the opposing pros and cons. Duty soon firms as the traditional favourite, having the conservative Lorder behind it. But the cumbersome grinding of rusty legal wheels frustrates our Spherical masses, now actively lobbying. Dignity appeals to them, the empowered collective with the social conscience to swamp the Nth with self-serving sanctimonious sentimentality.

Around the Sphere the so-called Rites of minorities are top of the pops – primarily the commentators' Rites of course, but also incidentally the Enders' too. So, after a slow start during the hearing of witnesses, Dignity makes up ground as the Nth gives chase. All the Nth's interactive channels – social, orthodox, establishment, progressive – are going hyper, shrieking rival perspectives. Finally, after hysteria peaks, we Sphericals are impatient for a verdict. An overly considered legalistic judgment is too long a wait. Our Apols in particular agitate as usual for the quickest decision – a popular vote, carried out by the Nth media.

Highlights and public commentary during the formal investigation included all manner of tidbits. In evidence Larry maintains he has a date to keep each year with Bee, and he relishes it. They have unfinished business. If the Hopalong was ever banned, Larry asserts they would compete anyway. When Bee gets her say she heartily agrees, sternly rebuking the Panel, and announcing she already has a protest gaining momentum in the Nth. The tag slogan is '#EnderRites'. And her petition to allow Enders' Risk is fast gathering signatures across the Sphere. Duty versus Dignity is going viral.

Next, Ricky and Sambo continue their sparring in front of the Panel. Ricky jabs Sambo, accusing him of pumping steroids to overpower him in the Hopalong. Sambo counter-punches that most of Happy Memories is doped to the gills, and not only for the Hopalong. Ricky deflects that competition in general highlights the unfairness of doping. It's just not cricket to pop pills for a contest; the rest of life doesn't count. Pummeled, the public concludes that whoever wins on sport day remains blighted by a stimulant fog over their prowess.

The Panel is politely dismissive of Ricky and Sambo's punch-drunk claims; just about every Spherical is on some upper or downer. The Happy Memories director, Zi Min confirms tranquilizers outnumber vitamins three to one. Enders are either sedated or stimulated. So is society at large. Everyone knows. The pharmaceutical peddlers would implode if their trade in altering consciousness were ever curtailed. Indeed the Sphere's economy would plummet.

Finally, the investigation also hears from Filo. Every Idol embodies the knowledge resources of all Idols, but not all can express wisdom as eloquently. This Idol's stature is evident from the hush as Filo clearly articulates – an Idol's duty is to uphold individual dignity with minimal risk. The Panel listen respectfully, aware that Idols' expert computation of the Sphere's utilitarian ethics is undisputed. Filo explains that 'Do No Harm' is not only about physical safety, though it comes first. Dignity is intrinsic to self-esteem, and instrumental to overall well being. Filo calculates the Hopalong poses minimal risk. Filo lectures that Relativism states an ethical dilemma is not all about 'us'; it is equally about 'them' too. So if Enders want to nudge their envelope, let them. And Deontology says we have a duty not only to our Enders in particular, but to all who act out of principle. The applause is palpable.

While the Panel retreats to deliberate the Nth continues to reverberate in the background. Its Dignity message is louder than ever. But the Lorder is the law that Duty follows. Past, present and future. So the Panel carefully craft their decision to infer that Duty of Care actually extends to the mental state of Enders – in particular their dignity, as long as physical risk is minimized. This pronouncement neatly dovetails with the Nth overwhelming vote for Enders having a Rite to Dignity of Risk. So the Enders win the day.

The precedent is set. Duty of Care no longer lords it over Dignity of Risk. Duty must consider Dignity. In other words, Duty now bows to Dignity. And Filo will be next month's Voice of the Nth, a publicity hero for all who risk life, limb or anything else. Spherical life will adapt its ways. Or so it seems. Yet the ink never dries on Volutility.

Soon, carer institutions like Happy Memories rationalize a more self-serving perspective on Duty with Dignity. Ender institutions reason that by the time their dignified clients reach risk X, their carers will have already done their duty at Y. And when indignant Enders reach Y, their carers will be comfortably ahead at Z. And so on, as incidents arise, despite presumably diminishing carer immunity. Eventually, Happy Memories and the like wind up with an unblemished Rites record. Achilles' best mate Zeeno would be proud. Only Bee and Filo appreciate the paradox. All care, no responsibility.

Actually, Zeeno being a mathematician vitiates the paradox. He points out that an infinite series can have a finite sum. So Duty bound organisations that care more for themselves are not immune to Dignity claims ad infinitum. However Zeeno agrees with the Panel that Duty and Dignity are no longer independent variables. Indeed space and time have not been orthogonal dimensions since Einstein.

--oOOo--