Human Capability

What awaits us in the near future? Movies tend to show a future where people are able to rely solely on machines and not have to lift a finger if they don't wish to do so. I, Robot explores the idea of what like would be like if people lived in harmony with self-aware artificial intelligence. Moreover, the movie addresses the questions of what is the true divide between man and machine?

In I, Robot, people live in harmony with robots. The protagonist, Detective Spooner, have a strong distrust and dislike for robots after a robot allowed a someone to die. The robot saved his life over the other person because of practicality. As a result, Spooner was convinced that the action made robots apathetic and incapable of experiencing true emotions. To Spooner, robots were machines that were capable of turning on a person at any time due to their design for purpose but not loyalty. The question of what separates our being from there being still remains. Take the Turing tests for example where people are to decide whether or not they're talking to a human or machine without laying eyes on whoever or whatever they're speaking to. In Ex Machina, Ava disappeared into the human world inconspicuously because she simply appeared human. If Spooner and others were not aware of the robots existence, they may have felt differently about them. Just simply knowing that there is a difference creates a different feelings and expectations about the object or person.

The robots were not people; they were devices that were meant to get things done. In my opinion, it appears that the robots were not human because they were not given that title. History has shown that the right to be considered human can be as ambiguous as the concept of race. Removing the human element has been a common tactic used in oppression. In a way, those who have been opposed were basically seen as robots: lacking emotions, only good for the purpose of serving the more dominant person and other inhuman elements. Despite the facts that those oppressed individuals were created by God and possessed a soul, they were not automatically granted humanity. As seen in many movies, robots are usually enslaved. Lacking a human title alleviates moral obligations for some. Thus I have came to the conclusion that what makes humans and robots different on a societal level is a title. People experience the same things that Sonny was feeling in I, Robot and just like Sonny some of those people are not seen as human. Here, I feel humanity comes to interpretations and expectations on a societal level. If AIs become as advanced as those in our films, there will be people fighting for the equal treatment of machines and those against it just as with the fight for civil rights and other fights of the oppressed.