Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) explores us to a future humanity full of intelligent machines. Throughout the movie, it is debated whether the “mecha” (robots) are as real as the “orga” (humans). This parallels the debate today on whether machines have the ability to truly know things the same way that we can, or whether they are only capable of doing what we program them to. The problem is the definition of knowing; it can be applied to shared knowledge as well as personal knowledge, these connotations meaning vastly different things. Shared knowledge general concerns scientific and/or mathematical facts and utilizes ways of knowing like reason and sense perception. Personal knowledge, on the other hand, often involves
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David is able to understand and communicate clearly with Monica and other humans. During the imprinting, Monica asks David questions to make sure she is doing the procedure correctly, and David is able to clearly answer her; this is only one example of David’s ability to understand Monica’s speech. David is also able to learn new words and as well as the implications of tone in language. When David and Joe visit Dr. Know, David becomes confused about the meaning of “flat fact”. When he repeats the word unsurely, Dr. Know provides the definition—at the cost of one of his questions. Luckily, David is able to to comprehend Joe’s advice to him: “You must take care not to raise your voice up at the end of a sentence,” and he no longer loses his questions accidentally. David is also able to understand Dr. Know’s later response on how to find the Blue Fairy, even being able to travel across the world to find her. These instances prove that machines are able of both sharing and gaining knowledge through …show more content…
David has the ability to experience fear, not just in response to physical stimuli either, as shown by his attachment to Joe and the repeated phrase “keep me safe” during the flesh fair; he also shows the ability to feel anger during his rampage and killing of the other David prototype upon his visit to Professor Hobby. Key to his design though is David’s ability to love; right after his imprinting, David begins to express this love for Monica, saying things like, “I love you, Mommy. I hope you never die.” His whole quest to find the Blue Fairy is also based on the very human desire to be loved—he believes that once he becomes a real boy, Monica will love him like she loves Martin. While Sheila, the robot in the opening scene has some understanding of love, able to recall the body’s physical reactions to it, she is not able to truly understand the emotion of love; Gigolo Joe, a lover-bot, also has some comprehension of love, knowing the right songs to play, the right words to say, and the right moves to make to show a woman physical love, he does not really show any understanding of the emotional side of love. This ability to love and thoroughly understand emotion is what sets David apart from the other machines, showing that for the most part, machines do not have the ability to fully understand more personal types of
David is able to understand and communicate clearly with Monica and other humans. During the imprinting, Monica asks David questions to make sure she is doing the procedure correctly, and David is able to clearly answer her; this is only one example of David’s ability to understand Monica’s speech. David is also able to learn new words and as well as the implications of tone in language. When David and Joe visit Dr. Know, David becomes confused about the meaning of “flat fact”. When he repeats the word unsurely, Dr. Know provides the definition—at the cost of one of his questions. Luckily, David is able to to comprehend Joe’s advice to him: “You must take care not to raise your voice up at the end of a sentence,” and he no longer loses his questions accidentally. David is also able to understand Dr. Know’s later response on how to find the Blue Fairy, even being able to travel across the world to find her. These instances prove that machines are able of both sharing and gaining knowledge through …show more content…
David has the ability to experience fear, not just in response to physical stimuli either, as shown by his attachment to Joe and the repeated phrase “keep me safe” during the flesh fair; he also shows the ability to feel anger during his rampage and killing of the other David prototype upon his visit to Professor Hobby. Key to his design though is David’s ability to love; right after his imprinting, David begins to express this love for Monica, saying things like, “I love you, Mommy. I hope you never die.” His whole quest to find the Blue Fairy is also based on the very human desire to be loved—he believes that once he becomes a real boy, Monica will love him like she loves Martin. While Sheila, the robot in the opening scene has some understanding of love, able to recall the body’s physical reactions to it, she is not able to truly understand the emotion of love; Gigolo Joe, a lover-bot, also has some comprehension of love, knowing the right songs to play, the right words to say, and the right moves to make to show a woman physical love, he does not really show any understanding of the emotional side of love. This ability to love and thoroughly understand emotion is what sets David apart from the other machines, showing that for the most part, machines do not have the ability to fully understand more personal types of