->What, so you've developed interstellar invasion technology, but you're so ungifted at robotics that you need manual labourers, and so bad at coming up with weaselly employment contracts that keeping slaves is actually cheaper? In that case, you're probably better off sticking to the drudge work yourself and getting human management consultants to be the masters.
-->-- '''[[http://jbr.me.uk/astro.html#4h Justin B Rye]]'''

->'''Kossara:''' ''[Who has been MadeASlave]'' Why? I mean, when you have a worldful of machines, every kind of robot—why slaves? How can it… how can it pay?
->'''Other Slave Woman:''' What else would you do with the wicked? Kill them, even for tiny things? Give them costly psychocorrection? Lock them away at public expense, useless to themselves and everybody else? No, let them work. Let the Imperium get some money from selling them the first time, if it can.
->'''Kossara:''' What can we do that a machine can’t do better?
->'''Other Slave Woman:''' Personal services. Many kinds. Or… well, economics. Often a slave is less efficient than a machine, but needs less capital investment.
-->-- Creator/PoulAnderson, ''[[Literature/TechnicHistory A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows]]''

->"The [[AIIsACrapshoot System]] uses people. We are flexible, adaptable... expendable."
-->-- '''Unnamed slave''', ''Series/BlakesSeven'', "Redemption"

->"I do not understand," said [=TuV'k=]. "You have the ability to cross the entire galaxy, yet your mercenaries boast of seizing treasure and taking sentient life-forms as slaves. What possible use could they be to an advanced technological society?"
->"They serve many uses," replied the Caretaker. "Clients like the Srivani and Vidiians, who have moral qualms about medical experimentation or organ-trading, find it more acceptable if practiced on species they regard as inferior. For cultural reasons the Hirogen require a constant supply of sentient prey. Unique life-forms are sought by scientific researchers and procurers for pleasure worlds alike. And there are always those who enjoy the subjugation and service of others for its own sake."
-->-- ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''

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