Could you love a robot?
November 23rd 2006 04:34
A.I. Artificial Intelligence asks the question, What does it mean to be human? Is it intelligence? A Soul? Emotion? The ability to dream? The film follows the story of a young robot named David. The idea is that if you create a robot in the likeness of a child you will create a truly human robot. And this seems to happen with David. His whole being is controlled by a longing to be loved and it is this longing that appears to define David as human. In fact he seems to be more human than his sickly brother, though he to longs for his mother to love him more than she loves David. This is where David poses a threat to the family. To the father, David is a robot. He is not quite human and therefore unnatural. To his brother David is a toy which threatens to steal his mother's affections from him. To the mother, David is her son. Uncomfortable with this father (though not deliberately) and son (deliberately) seek to remove David from the family. After David is tricked into cutting a lock of hair by his brother the father has a perfect excuse to have David destroyed. The mother, however is unable to destroy her son so she abandons him in the woods. Now alone, David searches for the blue fairy from the Pinnochio story in the hope that she will turn him into a "real boy". He never finds the blue fairy, however after being frozen for years and restored by advanced artificial intelligence he gets his true wish. He is allowed to see his mother again for one day and she tells him she loves him. He is able to let go then, in the knowledge that he is a real boy in the eyes of his mother. According to this film it seems that through the innocence of childhood it is possible to create an artificial being that can love and long to be loved. However, is it? Could we truly love a robot? That also is a question asked at the very beginning. If a robot can love, will we love it in return. So are the baffling questions that go through the mind when considering artificial intelligence.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD