39,327
edits
Just a Machine: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (remove unneccessary quote box template) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 9:
'''Secretary:''' (thinking) ''When they bring in doughnuts, they have names.''|''[[Freefall (Webcomic)|Freefall]]''}}
Authors and characters in [[Speculative Fiction]] have oft pondered whether robots, AI's, clones, and other [[What Measure Is a Non
Well, not in this universe.
Line 17:
Then there's the people who just don't ''think'' they can.
To them, it's [[Title Drop|"just a machine"]]. Its only value is the monetary expense incurred in building, cloning, coding or buying it. [[Expendable Clone|It has no rights]], you can't even be accused of animal cruelty for beating it (at worst, of being wasteful or having poor taste), even when it's unique and has [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]. The humans will doubt or deny that they can feel, and if they ''can'' these feelings are ignored or treated as less valid than a humans' smallest whimsy.
It should come as no surprise that these humans are keen on enslaving them, or if at war to think nothing of killing them. Its destruction is never considered a moral question-- just one of economics or simple survival. Oh, and you can expect these people to never use male or female pronouns to refer to these characters-- they often consciously choose not to as a means to [[Fantastic Racism|avoid humanizing them]]. Is it any wonder they [[Turned Against Their Masters]]?
Line 25:
It can get pretty odd when the machines themselves claim this is the case.
Compare [[Not Even Human]]. [[Sub Trope]] of [[What Measure Is a Non
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
Line 62:
** [[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?
* This question is debated by the characters in ''[[Two Thousand Ten the Year We Make Contact]]'' with respect to HAL, the [[Master Computer]] of the USS ''Discovery'' who [[AI Is a Crapshoot|went berserk and killed his crew]] in ''[[Two Thousand One|2001]]''. When the astronauts' lives are threatened, it becomes a [[What Measure Is a Non
* 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.
** Galloway refers to Optimus Prime as a "pile of scrap-metal" after his dead body is delivered back to base. And this is even after Optimus managed to verbally own the guy in a debate which featured topics such as [[Humans Are Bastards|human nature]] and whether they could defend themselves against a Decepticon invasion. Then again, Galloway is just a huge [[Jerkass]].
Line 72:
'''John:''' Alright, "it"! But we need "it"! }}
* [[I Robot (Film)|"Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine."]] Subverted, since he is one of the few people who actually see robots as not just machines (and loathes them for it).
* Inverted in ''[[Star Trek:
Line 116:
* ''[[Smallville]]'', in the season 7 finale did this in probably the worst way possible:
{{quote| '''[[AI Is a Crapshoot|Brainiac]]:''' You can't kill me, [[Superman|Clark]]. You could never kill a man in cold blood!<br />
'''Clark:''' [[What Measure Is a Non
** 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.
Line 150:
** Later, [[Demonic Possession|Jack]] rather brutally kills a guard robot. Annie is horrified, and Jack dismisses her: [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=706 "So what? It's just a dumb robot."] It's another definite indication that Jack is [[Not Himself|not in his right mind]].
** In a flashback, we see that Jeanne didn't seem to think that highly of the Robots.
* The Nemesites in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' have [[Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence|both sentient and non-sentient robots.]] When [[Big Bad|Fructose Riboflavin]] destroys a robot guard during a jailbreak, he [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090901.html expresses disappointment that the guard ''wasn't'' sentient and couldn't feel ''pain'' at the experience.] Riboflavin is [[Card
* There seems to be some discrimination against AIs in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', despite the fact that none of them have [[Turned Against Their Masters]]--[[Deus Est Machina|except for one]], and that's because his masters were [[Fantastic Racism|xenophobic]] [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|warmongers]].
* ''[[Spacetrawler]]'' is unusual in that [http://spacetrawler.com/2011/01/25/spacetrawler-114/ the robots themselves admit that they're just machines.]
Line 172:
[[Category:You Hate What You Are]]
[[Category:Just A Machine]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
| |||