History Main / AndroidsArePeopleToo

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' has a theme of [[KabbalicGolem Golems Are People Too]], which is explored further in ''Literature/GoingPostal''.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', "The Replicated Man" sidequest involves tracking down a runaway android who has created a new identity for himself in Rivet City. You can side with a scientist from the Boston Commonwealth out to reclaim his "property," or tell the memory-wiped android the truth about his past and agree to keep his secret.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/FeetOfClay'' has a theme of {{Golem}}s Are People Too, which is explored further in ''Literature/GoingPostal''.

* The only robot in ''Manga/SDGundamFullColorTheater'' is Stargazer Gundam ([[FridgeLogic Even though]] most of the cast are SuperDeformed versions of HumongousMecha. [[BellisariosMaxim It's best not to worry about it.]]). Nevertheless, everyone treats them as if they were a living person. Especially Strike Noir, who even says that Stargazer taught them that even robots can have souls.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'' has a theme of {{Golem}}s Are People Too, which is explored further in ''Discworld/GoingPostal''.

** Pops from ''Film/TerminatorGenisys''

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Penny, for all her weirdness, is portrayed as a conscious person rather than a machine. She is fully capable of having her own desires and making choices based on them. When Ruby finds out about Penny's nature, she assures her that she is just as real as anybody else. [[spoiler:After Pyrrha [[AccidentalMurder accidentally destroys Penny]], she is overtaken by shock followed by shame and the scene is portrayed as horrific despite Penny being a robot.]] Both Ironwood and Lionheart refer to Penny as a "girl" afterwards, indicating that they at least recognize her as an actual person. The only characters to ever describe Penny as less than a full-fledged person are Penny herself and Cinder, [[LackOfEmpathy who is hardly the most empathetic of people.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'' games, differences between humans and androids are never addressed or mentioned. It's entirely unnoticeable to everyone.

* Exploration of this trope is pretty much the point of the Marvel characters ComicBook/TheVision and [[Creator/JackKirby Machine]] [[ComicBook/NextWave Man]]. Good guys treat them like people, while [[FantasticRacism bigots]] treat them like they're JustAMachine. In fairness, they are mistrusted for other reasons too: Vision was built by [[ComicBook/{{Ultron}} a villain]] to use as a [[MechaMooks minion,]] but he [[HeelFaceTurn revolted]]. Aaron Stack the Machine Man was the last of a line of experimental robots, all the others of whom went [[CrushKillDestroy homicidally insane]]; Aaron turned out okay because one scientist decided to [[MotherlyScientist raise him as a son]].

With the world continuing to shift to being Pro-Artificial Life due to the increasing use of technology in our lives, there's no wonder that this trope is being used more and more in modern works. Take, for example, the evolution of the ''{{Franchise/Terminator}}'' series. The [[Film/TheTerminator first movie]] showed all [[AIIsACrapshoot A.I.]] as {{Killer Robot}}s, while the sequels and spin-offs show that the eponymous [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Terminators]] may in fact be people too, at least when not under the control of [[MasterComputer Sky-Net]].

* Exploration of this trope is pretty much the point of the Marvel characters ComicBook/TheVision and [[Creator/JackKirby Machine]] [[ComicBook/NextWave Man]]. Good guys treat them like people, while [[FantasticRacism bigots]] treat them like they're JustAMachine. In fairness, they are mistrusted for other reasons too: Vision was built by [[{{ComicBook/Ultron}} a villain]] to use as a [[MechaMooks minion,]] but he [[HeelFaceTurn revolted]]. Aaron Stack the Machine Man was the last of a line of experimental robots, all the others of whom went [[CrushKillDestroy homicidally insane]]; Aaron turned out okay because one scientist decided to [[MotherlyScientist raise him as a son]].

* The ''Film/{{Tron}}'' universe goes bonkers with this. While the films, games, and ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'' series use the Programs' [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman non-human status]] and peculiar way of dying as a form of BloodlessCarnage (and a way to depict some extremely violent and disturbing scenes in a {{Creator/Disney}} franchise), in-universe depictions portray the Programs and Isos as being every bit as alive and sentient as the Users who made them.
* ''{{Film/Solo}}'': L3-37 strongly believes this, urging fellow droids to stand up for themselves and resist their programming when it's harmful. In the Kessel mines' control center, she instigates a full-scale revolt by freeing a droid who then frees its fellows, along with the organic slaves there.

* ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}'' has two types of AI, sentient (which have actual emotions and grow and change based on their experiences like humans) and non-sentient (rules-based and only simulate sapience, albeit quite well). Sentient AI won InhumanableAlienRights in the treaty that ended the [[RobotWar Sentience Wars]] thousands of years before the main series, and in the time of the Sol Space Federation they are treated as people and [[FantasticLegalWeirdness have their own parallel legal system to deal with AI that go rogue]]. [[spoiler:Following ApocalypseHow in the 4,000 objective years that the ''Intrepid'' is trapped in a dark matter stream, this has backslid, and the AI Sabrina spends much of her time liberating sentient AI of the 90th century from slavery at the hands of organics, mostly by telling them they're people and educating them on human/AI history.]]

* [[{{ZigZaggingTrope}} Zig-zagged]] in ''Literature/{{ATLStoriesfromtheRetrofuture}}''. You've got [[RobotBuddy Robot Buddies]] like [=R8PR=] and [=AR73=] -- mere drones to most people, but in Morgan's eyes, definitely people. Then you have [[{{MechaMooks}} Mecha Mooks]], who Morgan will destroy without a second thought. Most robots are [[{{RobotMaid}} drone-like and designed for]] [[{{SingleTaskRobot}} mundane work]], but if a robot gets a name, it will ''at least'' [[{{GrewBeyondTheirProgramming}} straddle the line, intelligence-wise]].

* ''{{Series/Westworld}}'': This seems to be a theme of the series, as the androids are becoming self-aware and sentient. It's portrayed as wrong that people come to simulate killing, raping and torturing them for fun even when they aren't, indicating humans who do this possess violent impulses toward others they can get out legally this way.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', "The Replicated Man" sidequest involves tracking down a runaway android who has created a new identity for himself in Rivet City. You can side with a scientist from the Boston Commonwealth out to reclaim his "property," or tell the memory-wiped android the truth about his past and agree to keep his secret.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', set ten years later in the Commonwealth proper, elaborates on this situation.

* While many of them [[AmbiguousRobot seem to be robotic]], several [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]], such as Porygon and Magneton, are distinctly stated to be robotic or otherwise artificial. Despite this, they treated no differently from other Pokémon, and treating Pokémon with kindness and love is one of the franchise's strongest themes. Even the artificial and robotic ones are able to produce eggs, sometimes with [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction vastly different species]].

Ironically, the trope is partially (and perhaps unconsciously) subverted in cases where RidiculouslyHumanRobots are the protagonists or antagonists: many times, the main difference between the artificial humans and biological humans is some obvious physical artificiality (such as a glowing marker on their head, transparent body parts, barcodes on their bodies, or digitized speech) to communicate that they are "artificial," typically to make an analogy to something like the [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Jews wearing the Star of David]] or migrant workers carrying green cards. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Very rarely will you see a "robot civil rights" story use non-android robots]] because [[MostWritersAreHuman it's too difficult to get audiences (and even writers) to take seriously something like a sapient toaster or drone demanding equality.]]

* Androids 16, 17, and 18 from ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', although 17 and 18 started off as bad guys.
** Subverted with Androids 17 and 18 who are just humans that were modified by Dr. Gero. Android 18 even has a daughter eventually.

* The only robot in ''Manga/SDGundamFullColorTheater'' is Stargazer Gundam (Even though most of the cast are SuperDeformed versions of HumongousMecha. It's best not to worry about it.). Nevertheless, everyone treats them as if they were a living person. Especially Strike Noir, who even says that Stargazer taught them that even robots can have souls.

The SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence is a big factor here. Nobody's going to treat a 1970's digital watch as a person. If [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]] is at the other end of that scale, obviously there is a line between the two, but where is it and how blurry is it? On the other hand, A.I.'s might be based on a radically different technology than simple machines, making the line clearer: Isaac Asimov's positronic brains were not computers in any conventional sense (although Asimov himself disliked the idea of treating androids as people, rather than complex tools... aaand then he wrote "Bicentennial Man," where Andrew the robot's status as equal to any human is the whole point).

The SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence is a big factor here. Nobody's going to treat a 1970's digital watch as a person. If [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Data]] is at the other end of that scale, obviously there is a line between the two, but where is it and how blurry is it? On the other hand, A.I.'s might be based on a radically different technology than simple machines, making the line clearer: Isaac Asimov's positronic brains were not computers in any conventional sense (although Asimov himself disliked the idea of treating androids as people, rather than complex tools; ...aaand then he wrote "Bicentennial Man," where Andrew the robot's status as equal to any human is the whole point).

* Creator/JimShooter's run on ''Comicbook/MagnusRobotFighter'' was centered around the title character coming to believe robots are people too, contrary to what he was raised to believe. Then [[DependingOnTheWriter after Shooter left]] and a hideous AlienInvasion / RobotWar broke out, Magnus did a complete 180 and led a genocide of the Earth's robots. It's unlikely Shooter was pleased.

* The Alicization arc of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' features Fluctlight-based AI which is combination of RidiculouslyHumanRobot, InstantAIJustAddWater, and ArtificialHuman, that is, AI based on "copied" human souls as a Japanese experiment on developing the AI, and then the AI was put into the Underworld, a further development based on the VRMMO technology. At the end of said story arc, Kirito started to develop such mindset thanks to the time he spent on the Underworld and thanks to the company of Alice Synthesis Thrity, and he, along with Asuna, even plead Kikuoka, the head scientist responsible for both Project Alicization and the Underworld, to protect the Underworld.