Although in “Jerry Was a Man” the fate of the laborers reminded me of “soap” production in Cloud Atlas, and the courtroom scene of the parable of the Fair Witnesses in a different science fiction story (the excerpt of which, strangely enough, is on Urban Dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fair%20Witness), what I found most striking about the story was the criteria of being human.

Jerry is considered able to take the stand once he proves that he won’t lie in the face of coercion (the response to which was, itself, coerced). After that revelation, I was ready to throw the case out as invalid, but then I started thinking.

If a human child were offered candy to give the wrong number of fingers, would they? I think not–not in a room full of adults who have just seen the truth. The impulse to avoid social embarrassment is strong, stronger than most rewards.

But more significant in this case is the ability to lie. Jerry is uncomfortable with it, but he manages it. It’s a simple matter to state things as they are, though this can be complicated by expression and definition as we see with the dolphins and the world “ocean.” It takes a real complexity, however, to lie. Lying engages complex parts of the brain, the same parts responsible for imagination, metaphor, symbolism, and culture. Though Jerry’s ability to tell the truth determined the ruling in his case, I think more significant in convincing the reader of his humanity is his ability to lie (more on the functions of the brain here: https://www.livescience.com/49244-imagination-reality-brain-flow-direction.html).