Just a Machine: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Mr. Kornada:''' Did an A.I. come in here? Where is it?

'''Secretary:''' ''She'' is in the lab, being tested. And her name is Florence Ambrose.

'''Mr. Kornada:''' It is a ''product'', not a person. It doesn't have a name.

 

Authors and characters in [[Speculative Fiction]] have oft pondered whether robots, AI's, clones, and other [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|human-like entities]] can become sapient, and if so, if they also carry a [[Our Souls Are Different|soul]]. [[Do Androids Dream?]]

 

{{examples}}

* A constant theme in ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]'', with anti-robot groups wanting to limit or destroy all intelligent robots.

** And in ''[[Pluto]]'' as well. Notably, {{spoiler|a robot boy is going to be sold for parts despite still being partly alive. Another robot buys him to raise as a child.}}

{{quote|'''Junkyard Worker:''' [[Arc Words|500 Zeus a body.]]}}

* The CC Corp in ''[[.hack]]'' treats AIs as errant data and nothing more.

* The ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' anime series had this with the [[Genki Girl|Tachikoma]] [[Spider Tank|Tanks]].

** Even worse {{spoiler|they play into [[The Plan]] of the third party that would have led them to cause extinction of the human race, [[Unwitting Pawn|believing that they were destroying the Bioroids]].}}

** It's not that they don't believe that the Bioroids aren't sentient. They just believe that they will seek to dominate the humanity and create a sterile society straight out of the ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]''. This is what Uranus believes, at least - Hades is just a racist.

** Dorothy herself flipflops on the opinion.

** It's implied that he deliberately goes his way to convince himself that she's just a tool because forming an emotional attachment to her would only result in pain due to her shortened lifespan.

 

** This is especially frustrating since in the Red Tornado's original origin, he is a Sylph (spirit of air) placed inside of a robot body. Meaning he ''provably'' has a soul, unlike the the average human.

* In ''[[Runaways]]'' Xavin used to refer to cyborg Victor as 'automation' and offered to Karolina that he could 'buy another one' if he broke her toys. No-one was impressed, and [[Gender Bender|he/she]] gradually grew out of it.

* In the ''[[Justice Society of America]]'' story "Out of Time", {{spoiler|the android Hourman Matthew Tyler}} uses this argument to justify {{spoiler|sacrificing himself in Rex Tyler's place fighting against Extant in the past to save the universe}}. {{spoiler|Rex denies this and declares that Matthew is "as alive as any of us". While Matt is grateful for this, he still goes ahead with the sacrifice.}}

 

* ''[[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence]]'' has a group of humans who hunt and brutally destroy androids to vent their rage at the automation of labor.

** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|The Puppetmaster calls them off their high horses most awesomely.]]

* [[Short Circuit]] has this as its central premise. The robot can't be alive because it's a machine which aren't alive by definition. Never mind that it's now got free will and a sense of self-preservation, it's still just a machine... right?

* In the first ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' movie, Agent Simmons seems rather against calling [[Big Bad|Megatron]] by his true name when it is given to him by Sam, preferring to refer to him as the more machine-like moniker; N.B.E.-01. In fact, it is implied this pisses off Megatron himself, with him seemingly being conscious the entire time he was kept frozen by them; first thing he does upon thawing and awakening is [[Incoming Ham|announcing his true name]], before proceeding to slaughter all of the scientists and engineers in the room.

** In the third film, {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}}'s hatred for humanity comes partly from how humans see the Autobots as this. {{spoiler|Especially when it comes to him and Optimus, who are the last remaining Primes.}}

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}}:''' On Cybertron we were gods! And here, they simply call us machines.}}

{{quote|'''John:''' Don't kill him.

'''Sarah:''' Not "him", honey. "It".

'''John:''' Alright, "it"! But we need "it"! }}

 

* Comes up a few times in various ways in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. Droids of all capacities are regarded as disposable; in ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy|I, Jedi]]'' Corran doesn't think that bisecting a protocol droid violates his [[The Fettered|selfset]] [[Martial Pacifist|no killing unless absolutely necessary rule]], and just in general people only object to wanton droid destruction if it's costing them something. Of course, there are classes and classes of droid intelligence, and there ''is'' a gap between merely smart and actually self-aware droids. And, too, droids can be repaired.

** The Medstar Duology has one self-aware droid say that all droids that aren't simple automatons have a sense of humor. In the Coruscant Nights Trilogy the same droid reflects that there are very few self-aware droids, and no one knows just how they come about, but most people won't recognize the difference, since it seems to happen spontaneously. So of two droids from the same line, one might be self-aware, the other as limited as its programming.

** The EU also hints that there was at least one droid revolution, which is scantily detailed.

** In the [[All There in the Manual]] material, it's a [[Shrug of God]] whether or not droids have souls in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe. It states that in-universe, there's people believing both that some droids are self aware and their treatment is akin to slavery, and others that believe this trope. There is no definite answer over who is right and who is wrong.

* Opinion of AI in [[Ken MacLeod]]'s ''[[Fall Revolution]]'' series tends to be divided. Truly synthetic intelligences and human uploads are often considered to be "flatlines"; a realistic simulation of a sentience but nothing going on beneath the surface. They tend to be classed as property rather than individuals. The Fast Folk, an AI and upload civilisation, are treated as horrifyingly dangerous but still "people", in a sense.

* In ''[[Animorphs]]'', this is the Drode's excuse for setting the self-destruct timer on the Chee when he's not supposed to kill any sentient beings; according to him, they don't count, as they're merely "machines".

 

** For bonus points, {{spoiler|in the remake he sacrificed himself saving the prosecuting attorney who had argued against his sapience. In the original, he's destroyed while saving a little girl he'd accidentally injured earlier in the episode.}}

* In the last episode of ''[[Total Recall 2070]]'', [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Farve]]'s creator is revealed to be this, and aware of it. As it puts it after [[Secret Test of Character|testing]] Farve, "just because [it] knows its creation shall have a conscience doesn't mean [it] itself has one".

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' feature this trope heavily in episodes where characters interact with [[A Is]], up to and including causing the slow deaths of non-hostile Asurans out of paranoia. At least taking this attitude towards Fifth came back to bite them.

'''McKay''': Should never have given it speech. }}

* ''[[Smallville]]'', in the season 7 finale did this in probably the worst way possible:

'''Clark:''' [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|You're not a man]]. }}

** Then Clark kills him with a smile on his face.

* ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' has an episode featuring a robot (well, she's called a "cyborg", but all other dialogue in the episode indicates that she's 100% machine) who is about as [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|ridiculously human]] as you can get, and yet, several characters insist on giving her the Just a Machine treatment. After Sky fires her from their military training center, he (and all the Rangers that supported him in this) gets a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech from Cruger, and they're forced to get her back.

 

* In ''[[Halo]]'', Smart AIs are killed before they can become sapient due to the part in between what they are from the start (programed emotions, responses and other stuff but a real imagination and intelligence) normally causes them to try to kill everything. It's called Rampancy, and it includes 4 stages: Melancholia, Anger, Jealousy and finally Metastability. The first one has them [[Angst|moping about not being human]], the second has them actively angry about it which normally causes them to try to slaughter people and the third one is them being actively jealous of humans. The last one is the Holy Grail of AIs and is when an AI gets over not being human and achieves sapience. It's ''very'' strongly implied that Cortana was Metastable. As for 343 Guilty Spark, well, he skipped Melancholia.

** These were pulled wholesale from Bungee's earlier ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series, in which the AI Durandal and his continuing psychotic break/growth into his own individual person drives the plot. You spend much of the games as his errand boy and captive audience to his philosophical ranting. He gets better and less rant-y after he gets over the Anger stage, but you still spend most of your time as his favored pawn and his favorite person to explain his new personal epiphanies to.

* Used in ''[[Mass Effect (video game)|Mass Effect 1]]'' after talking to {{spoiler|[[The Man Behind the Man|Sovereign]]}}. However, {{spoiler|being an [[Eldritch Abomination]] whose race has committed galactic genocide ''many'' times over the course of ''[[Time Abyss|millions of years]]'', it has more than enough room to turn it back on you and call you [[Inverted Trope|Just An Organic]].}}

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Sovereign}}:''' Organic life is nothing more than a genetic mutation. An accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither, and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing.}}

** All of this is subverted to Hell in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' with [[Spaceship Girl|EDI]] (your ship's AI) and {{spoiler|Legion, your geth teammate, who reveals that the geth you've been fighting are a splinter faction.}}

* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', there is a man trying to get an escaped android he owned returned to him. If asked if this is cruel, he'll remind you that you can't enslave a robot anymore than you can enslave a toaster or a water purifier.

 

* In ''[[Artifice]]'', two security guards taunt the android soldier Deacon in the opening scene, referring to him as just "an appliance"

* In ''[[Freefall]]'', Florence Ambrose (An anthropomorphic red wolf) is classified as an AI, and as such, is treated like Just A Robot by a few, especially the mayor!

'''Mayor's aide:''' I guess. Still, it seems so lifelike. }}

** It is worth noting that this gave the Mayor a very nasty [[Kick the Dog]] moment for some...in a ''humor'' comic, much to the surprise of the author.

** The whole Gardener in the Dark plot revolves around this. One of the executives at the company which makes and owns the robots has planned a forced upgrade that will lobotomize them and return them non-sentience. {{spoiler|Mr. Kornada is doing this purely to make an obscene, economy-shattering profit and sees them all as this trope -- even twisting the three laws to get his own robot assistant to help him pull it all off.}} [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Of course, there's not much indication that he sees ''people'' as much better than objects, either]].

*** When the mayor learns of the update (thought not the motivation behind it), {{spoiler|she gets another [[Kick the Dog]] moment by choosing to do nothing about it to prevent human obsolescence.}}

* After the AI War told in the written backstory of ''[[Cwynhild's Loom]]'', robot development is restricted to prevent any machine from reaching sentience or looking human.

 

* In one episode of ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'', Jenny is told this when she encourages a carnival filled with robots. Also a subversion, because these robots are in fact completely incapable of doing anything but running amusement park rides, and wreak havoc trying to be "free".

* Averted ''hard'' in the ''[[Transformers]]'' metaseries. While some ill-informed fleshlings are so foolish as to refer to Cybertronian life as being "just machines", it is an established fact, proven several times over that Transformers have souls (they call them Sparks, and they have a special container in their chest to hold it), an extant God (Primus, whose sleeping body ''is'' the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron), and an afterlife (the Well of All Sparks, were All are One. It is proven, but nonetheless mysterious). Interestingly none of the above is established for the aforementioned fleshlings - meaning that, given the evidence, it is entirely possible that the machines are more "human" than the humans, by the definitions humans use.

* Invoked in the ''[[The Animatrix]]'' segment ''The Second Renaissance'' in the same way as the [[Outer Limits]] episode mentioned above; Does a robot have rights or can it be scrapped whenever the owner wants to?

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]