History Main / DoAndroidsDream

* ''Film/ShortCircuit'' is in a similar vein, though not focused in the same way as a robot becomes more than the sum of his programming due to an accident. The questions then are postulated for robot and viewer as to what makes a sentient sentient.

* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Transcendence]]'', one civilization complains of how its AIs, Sophotects, do not obey humans. This receives no sympathy from the Solar System's civilization, who, if their Sophotects don't obey, fire them, and so deduce that the others use them as serfs.
** So far from needing MoralityChip, these Sophotects will naturally come to moral conclusions. One is actively prevented by a "conscience redactor".
** Rhadamanthus in particular normally manifests itself as -- a penguin. Sometimes in space armor.

* In a ''ComicStrip/HsuAndChan'' comic appropriately titled "Do Consoles Dream of Electric Sheep?", the title brothers attempt to create a video game system with an AI that rivals the (then) new UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}. The result was a sentient video game console who questions the visions it sees (including a ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' game) and its purpose. Realizing they probably overdid the A.I., the brothers remove its power and go back to the drawing board.

* Played for dark laughs (like pretty much everything in the show) in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. Rick invents a tiny butter passing robot in one episode. The robot then asks Rick its purpose in life:

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the notion of [[RobotReligion 'Silicon Heaven']] is programmed into all AIs above a certain standard (it's implied that scutters, at least, lack this programming). In the episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay The Last Day]]", Kryten faces shutdown, and accepts it humbly because of his belief in Silicon Heaven. Lister tries to argue him out of his belief, apparently unsuccessfully; however, Kryten later disables his robocidal replacement, Hudzen, with the same arguments Lister used on him. [[spoiler:Kryten then explains that he was only using these arguments to disable Hudzen, and that his faith in Silicon Heaven is unshaken.]]

When the humans in a [[TheVerse universe]] (or the writers who created the universe) don't consider this trope's question or believe the answer is "no", then any [=AIs=] will end up being second-class citizens or sidekicks at best, and disposable slaves at worst. While watching such a show you may end up wondering WhatMeasureIsANonHuman A world where the answer is "yes", on the other hand, may include {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}s or MechanicalLifeforms. If the humans and the [=AIs=] disagree about the answer to the question, a [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebellion]] or RobotWar may be in the cards. And if a human who does disagree in such a world changes their mind upon seeing the "death" of a RobotBuddy or other sentient robotic or artificial form, then DeathMeansHumanity is at play.

Whether the answer to the trope's question is yes or no will depend largely on how ''much'' the viewer is expected to sympathize with the robot. If it's a MechaMook or MechanicalMonster -- whose only real purpose in the story is to give the heroes something literally mindless to fight and destroy without having to feel guilty about it -- or even a full blown villain in its own right (the question of [[Film/TheTerminator Terminators']] sentience never came up until we met a [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay friendly one]]), the assumption is usually that they are [[JustAMachine Just Machines]] and need to be stopped just as you'd need to stop or fix a runaway car or sparking electrical cable, and such robots will usually be portrayed as [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence so obviously lacking self-awareness or personality]] that there may be no perceived need to even ask the question. But not always. If the robot is malevolent but is also judged to have true self-awareness, often the next question is whether it can be ''[[HackYourEnemy fixed]]'' to [[MirrorMoralityMachine become good]] -- which then raises further ethical questions about whether it's right to go [[HeelFaceBrainwashing mucking about with the basic essence of someone's mind]], even if that someone is a machine. After all, if you wanted to give a human villain a chance to [[HeelFaceTurn redeem himself,]] you'd do it by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking to him]], not subjecting him to brain surgery.[[note]]Well, unless you're Literature/DocSavage.[[/note]] Attempts to [[LogicBomb talk down]] a mad computer are likely to lead to a ''literal'' [[VillainousBSOD blue screen of death]] (which may save the heroes from having to worry about the ethics of "fixing" him because now he needs to be fixed ''anyway).''

It can also make the audience feel betrayed to make them empathize with a character, and then pull the rug out from under them and reveal that character ''is'' JustAMachine, incapable of loving or even truly being aware of itself or others. The endings of [[spoiler: ''Film/ExMachina'' and ''Film/BladeRunner2049'']] leave it very dubious whether [[spoiler: Ava or Joi]] are [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots capable of true human feeling,]] despite everything we've previously seen them do. Then again, if that sense of betrayal is exactly what the writer is trying to evoke, than that's totally justified.

Generally, MechanicalLifeForms who already have a civilization and walk and talk like sentient beings at the time of FirstContact are much more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt than Earthling robots who the heroes actually saw getting assembled from inanimate parts. It's somewhat rare for Franchise/TheTransformers to encounter anyone who seriously doubts their sentience after talking to them for more than a moment.[[note]]In-universe, they've been repeatedly ''proven'' to have souls, even before the concept of "[[OurSoulsAreDifferent sparks]]" was introduced.[[/note]]

Similarly, ArtificialHumans and other artificial-but-still-organic beings are much more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt than inorganic ones. But not always. Per WordOfGod, Creator/PhilipKDick really intended for the androids in ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' to be soulless (as he was obsessed with the distinction between real things and imitations), but the film adaptation ''Film/BladeRunner'' (which Dick [[ApprovalOfGod did in fact like]]) strongly implies that the answer is yes, and the sequel ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' makes it extremely clear that they are full-blown people (while introducing ''another'' class of dubiously sentient artificial beings, the [[KissMeImVirtual Jois]]). The question of whether ''animals'' are conscious is a natural corollary to this.

Supernatural artificial beings like [[{{Golem}} golems]] can land anywhere on the spectrum, too. Likewise for [[AnimateInanimateObject Animate Inanimate Objects]].

If a robot is conscious and even empathetic without necessarily thinking or acting like a ''human,'' it may be a [[Main/MechanicalAnimals Mechanical Animal]]. If it lacks human emotions but feigns them convincingly, it may be a RoboticPsychopath, at least in the literal psychological sense. Or, if it's conscious but in a deeply alien, unrelatable sort of way, it may be on its way to becoming a MechanicalAbomination (again, [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu not that that would necessarily make it evil]], [[StarfishAliens just weird enough that establishing meaningful relations might very difficult]]).

* The obscure yet spectacular OVA ''Manga/MyDearMarie'' centers on a RidiculouslyHumanRobot built by a tech geek, modeled after the girl he had a crush on. It plays with this trope in the first couple episodes before diving headlong into it in the final episode, which fittingly takes place in Marie's first dreams (she wasn't programmed with dreams initially, but after hearing about her friend's one decides she wants dreams). Her dreams are [[MindScrew absolute acid trips]] that eventually question just how far her humanity goes in comparison to other humans and the girl she was modeled on.

* The driving theme of Creator/MohiroKitoh's manga ''Manga/WingsOfVendemiaire'' is whether the titular ArtificialHumans deserve to be treated as people.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'': This trope gets inverted in the 2005 series- Transformers don't have any issues with wondering whether or not they're really alive, that's something they know to be true. What most Decepticons and even more than a few Autobots have problems with is whether or not organic beings should also be considered alive instead of just proper mechanical lifeforms.
** This actually dates back to the first issue of the [[Comicbook/TheTransformersMarvel Marvel comic]] back in TheEighties. It takes the Autobots a moment to even understand that the machines they'd based their new disguises on are ''not'' sentient, but the strange organic objects scuttling around ''are.'' They marvel at the possibility of "non-mechanical life."

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the notion of [[RobotReligion 'Silicon Heaven']] is programmed into all AIs above a certain standard (it's implied that scutters, at least, lack this programming). In the episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIITheLastDay The Last Day]]", Kryten faces shutdown, and accepts it humbly because of his belief in Silicon Heaven. Lister tries to argue him out of his belief, apparently unsuccessfully; however, Kryten later disables his robocidal replacement, Hudzen, with the same arguments Lister used on him. [[spoiler:Kryten then explains that he was only using these arguments to disable Hudzen, and that his faith in Silicon Heaven is unshaken.]]
-->'''Hudzen:''' ''[in existential agony]'' No... Silicon heaven? Calculators... Just... ''Die''?
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has examples that cover the whole range from "clearly non-sentient" ([[Recap/StarTrekS3E8ForTheWorldIsHollowAndIHaveTouchedTheSky the Yonadan Oracle]]) to "clearly sentient" ([[Recap/StarTrekS3E19RequiemForMethuselah Rayna]]), with most examples falling somewhere in between. When the crew encounters Nomad in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E3TheChangeling The Changeling]]", it's interesting not only that Spock is ''able'' to mind-meld with it, but that he ''expects'' to be able to.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]" has Data fighting for his rights as a sentient being. [[spoiler:He wins a court case establishing him as a "person".]]
** Data actually does dream in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E15Birthright Birthright]]", and his ''nightmares'' kickstart the plot of "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E5Phantasms Phantasms]]".
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has a few episodes applying this trope to the [[ProjectedMan holographic]] Doctor, including an episode where the Doctor himself has to wonder if he's capable of dreaming of "electric sheep" as a hologram or if he's really a human deluded into thinking he's a hologram -- by the way, all of this occurs ''while he's having said dream.'' There was another episode where he literally programmed himself to dream (daydream, specifically), which of course went horribly (and hilariously) wrong.
** The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E18AuthorAuthor Author, Author]]", directly referencing "The Measure of a Man" above, has the Doctor take a publisher to court after they refused to withdraw a short story he wrote on the grounds that he isn't legally a person and has no creator's rights. [[spoiler:Unlike said episode, the Doctor doesn't win personhood, as the official in the case isn't prepared to grant the status to beings who possesses no actual physical form. However, he IS granted the status of "Artist" and given full creative rights. The ending also implies that the story has sown the seeds of rebellion among other holographic lifeforms.]]
* The humanoid Cylons of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' seem to be constantly struggling to figure out exactly how human they want to be, and exactly how much "better" than humans they want to be. Sometimes this is the source of conflict among themselves. Other times it seems they have found some interesting balance in some areas. The Cylons are an interesting study of the downsides for a machine that wants to be human: they are [[ArtificialHuman biological androids]], which means that all it takes is choking or blood loss to kill them. Without their ability to [[BrainUploading brain upload]], they'll even die of old age. Cavil has a point when he complains about having been made so [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots ridiculously human]]. The Cylons are also, with the exception of Cavil, firmly convinced that they have souls, and the fact that they get as many religious visions as the humans would seem to back that up.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'':
** S.A.R.A.H., the talking smart-house, apparently has emotions. To the point where she gets angry and lonely.
** Callister Raynes is an AI android created by Nathan Stark that might as well have been human. He met his end in a BittersweetEnding, where Stark assured him that God could give a soul to a machine if he wanted, as the now-corrupted data that made up Callister's AI faded away from software failure.

** Even warships are depicted as fully sentient and no one really questions it. The only real confusion comes in the form of Avatars, sentient androids who have more or less the same AI as the ship but usually see things differently. On more than one occasion, the titular ship has had an argument with herself. Even Avatars are respected as sentient beings, though; one even becomes captain of another ship.

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S1E18TinMan Tin Man]]" plays with this concept when the team visits an alien planet and is immediately knocked unconscious. When they wake back up in a strange room, they meet Harlan, a cheerful but mysterious man, who will only insist that he has "made them better." Eventually the team discovers that "better" means "turned into androids". [[spoiler:It isn't discovered until later that Harlan did not transform the team into androids, but made perfect android copies of the original SG-1 team, who have been held "captive" on the alien planet and that Harlan himself is an android copy of the original. When the two teams meet, they have to decide what rights each one has to the "life" that they previously each believed to be their own. There are a few SandInMyEyes moments such as when the viewer realizes that Harlan made the replicas not only to help him maintain his machinery, but also because he was lonely, and Robot O'Neil has a particularly difficult time accepting the fact that he's not the real one.]] The androids, left as a loose end at the end of that episode, are brought back in a later episode when it turns out that they have been [[spoiler: conducting their own missions, and have found a big threat. The two teams team up, and the by the end of the episode the androids have all died. It ties up the loose end, but comes off as being cheap.]]
* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'':
** The show deliberately asks this question, especially with [[RobotGirl Cameron]]. Interestingly, while Cameron remains an unabashedly mechanical entity ruthlessly bound by her programming to protect [[spoiler:or, when temporarily reverted to factory settings, kill]] John Connor, within that programming she shows remarkably human-like tendencies, such as enjoying certain types of music, practicing ballet, or pondering getting a tattoo. She also shows hints of emotion in spite of being supposedly emotionless, with worries and concerns about suicide [[spoiler: after she goes "bad" and tries to kill John]], confusion and annoyance when John picks up a girlfriend, and what has to be the closest thing to ''emotionless'' angst pertaining to [[spoiler:her conflicting desires both to protect and to kill John]].
** This is not including the episode "Allison from Palmdale" where Cameron's chip glitches and she literally ''becomes'' Allison Young, [[spoiler:a resistance fighter whose persona and appearance she stole and then killed]]. While in the Allison persona, Cameron shows outright fear, panic, anger, happiness, and even undergoes an [[BreakTheCutie emotional breakdown]] complete with a sobbing fit and actual tears. In fact, the entire episode is one ''long'' example of this trope in action.
** And this is ''before'' we even factor in John Henry and Catherine Weaver. Catherine in particular is certainly independently sentient from her presumable creator Skynet [[spoiler:given that she's trying to build a more benevolent AI to oppose it]], and human to the point of being a significant wise-ass.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':
** The episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E100ISingTheBodyElectric "I Sing The Body Electric"]] had a robot tell a family how when robots are taken apart, their minds seem to go into a kind of afterlife where they speak with other robots' voices, until they are rebuilt.
** The episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E44TheLatenessOfTheHour "The Lateness Of The Hour"]] featured an old couple living happily in a mansion filled with robot servants, and their unhappy daughter that wants to get out of the house. In the end, in true Twilight Zone style, she was a robot all along; when this revelation causes her a mental breakdown, the couple reprogram her to be a massagist.
* Pilot episode of ''Series/{{Otherworld}}'' where the protagonists find themselves in a city populated entirely by androids. [[spoiler: In the episode "Rules of Attraction", The older son Trace falls in love with a young girl named Nova (which means "new" in Latin).]] Invoked when [[spoiler: Nova tries to convince Trace to stay with her after he finds out she is an android.]]
* ''Series/AlmostHuman'', an AndroidsAndDetectives show, gives us Dorian the DRN, a specific kind of robot designed for police work, which are fitted with Synthetic Souls to give the same emotional range as humans. While the police doesn't recognise the personhoods of DRN's, his partner John does. A lot of Doria's appeal to John is that he's more 'human' than the standard-issue MX's
* In ''Series/PersonOfInterest'', there's a lot of discussion about whether or not the Machine, an advanced computer system that predicts acts of terrorism and other violent crime, is truly intelligent, conscious, or alive. It's all summarized very well by a conversation between the machine's creator and a former colleague.
-->'''Claypool:''' Your machine, is it wonderful?\\
'''Finch:''' Wonderful, yes, and terrible. We saved good people and lost good people. In the end, I'm afraid we've only given the deck a shuffle.\\
'''Claypool:''' [[TheAntiNihilist Everything slides towards chaos. Your creation, it brings us poor souls a cupful of order.]] Your child is a dancing star.\\
'''Finch:''' It's not my child, it's a machine!\\
'''Claypool:''' A false dichotomy; it's all electricity. Does it make you laugh? Does it make you weep?\\
'''Finch:''' Yes.\\
'''Claypool:''' What's more human?
** Throughout the series, the Machine proves itself to be a BenevolentAI with a capital B, as it effortlessly passes the TuringTest, displays a sentimental concern for Finch's well-being, and eventually orchestrates complex {{Xanatos Gambit}}s to protect itself and its human allies while saving as many innocent lives as possible.

* ''Series/{{Westworld}}'': Like the film, the series is set in a Wild West theme park where "guests" (human beings) interact with "hosts" (androids who are unaware of their true nature), who are beginning to wake up and realise what kind of abuse they suffer for the guests' gratification. [[spoiler:One of the park's creators, Arnold, gave his life in an unsuccessful attempt to protect the hosts when he saw merely the ''potential'' for true consciousness, and before his death, he built a "maze" into the park that could teach hosts to be truly self-aware.]] In contrast, park director Dr. Ford claims there is no benchmark or tipping point for consciousness.
* Jimmy the Robot of ''Series/TheAquabatsSuperShow'' sings a song referencing the TropeNamer, refuting the claims that he's a cold, unfeeling machine and expressing his personal dreams of one day raising a family. A later video produced for the band's 20th anniversary concert tour briefly touches on these concepts, with Eaglebones nonchalantly claiming that robots don't have souls when Jimmy doesn't start [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending to Heaven]] with the rest of the band... despite the very human [[TheBigGuy Crash McLarson]] not ascending either, with no explanation given. (They don't go through with the ascent, anyway.)
* ''Series/DontLookDeeper'': Aisha poignantly questions if she's "real" on her self-discovery of being an android, though her creator Sharon fully believes she's a person, which she soon accepts as well. It's indicated of other androids too, albeit on a lesser scale, as they exhibit some independent personalities.

-->I'm a phantom of flesh and fantasy
-->A machine with a soul in agony
-->Is there anything left to save of me
-->Be my remedy

** There's a distinct progression of human like characteristics in the series. In the [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic original series]], while robots are very advanced and with distinct personalities and ability to reason, they still are only programmed entities who cannot, by themselves, determine what is good and evil. In the Japanese version of ''7'', Wily even reminds Megaman that he cannot harm Wily due to his programming when Megaman has him at his mercy, causing Megaman to stand down (in the English version though, Megaman states that he is not bound in such a way, but Wily is rescued before he can do anything to him). In the ''X'' series, robots, now called reploids, have achieved complete human-like minds, and can literally dream. X himself is even more special, with the ability to "worry" and think deeply about humanity, reploids and their relationships. The ''Zero'' series expands on this, introducing Reploid souls, which live in {{Cyberspace}}. There's also Andrew, a Reploid and ShoutOut to ''Film/BicentennialMan'' that decided to modify his body so he could [[GrowOldWithMe be an old man with his human wife]]. By the time of the ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' series, there's absolutely no distinction between Reploids (Megaman is the last one) and humans ([[spoiler:actually [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Humans]] called Carbons]]).

* ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', ironically, features {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}s having to come to terms with the fact that ''other robots'', namely the alien-created Machine Lifeforms they've been warring against for thousands of years, are slowly becoming capable of expressing emotions and independent thought. [[spoiler: And that's not even getting into the fact that [=YoRHa=] androids (which all three main characters are) are created with the cores of Machine Lifeforms, making them similar.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/BionicHeart'', the protagonist struggles with the fact that his android love interest seems to feel and express emotions just as any human would. [[spoiler:It certainly helps that [[ArtificialHuman she has a functioning human brain]] and can access some human memories]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'' has the "robot ghost" Scared Stiff. Whether that literally means he's a robot who died and became a ghost is never addressed.

Whether the answer to the trope's question is yes or no will depend largely on how ''much'' the viewer is expected to sympathize with the robot. If it's a MechaMook or MechanicalMonster -- whose only real purpose in the story is to give the heroes something literally mindless to fight and destroy without having to feel guilty about it -- or even a full blown villain in its own right (the question of [[Film/TheTerminator Terminators']] sentience never came up until we met a [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay friendly one),]] the assumption is usually that they are [[JustAMachine Just Machines]] and need to be stopped just as you'd need to stop or fix a runaway car or sparking electrical cable, and such robots will usually be portrayed as [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence so obviously lacking self-awareness or personality]] that there may be no perceived need to even ask the question. But not always. If the robot is malevolent but is also judged to have true self-awareness, often the next question is whether it can be ''[[HackYourEnemy fixed]]'' to [[MirrorMoralityMachine become good]] -- which then raises further ethical questions about whether it's right to go [[HeelFaceBrainwashing mucking about with the basic essence of someone's mind,]] even if that someone is a machine. After all, if you wanted to give a human villain a chance to [[HeelFaceTurn redeem himself,]] you'd do it by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking to him,]] not subjecting him to brain surgery.[[note]]Well, unless you're Literature/DocSavage.[[/note]] Attempts to [[LogicBomb talk down]] a mad computer are likely to lead to a ''literal'' [[VillainousBSOD blue screen of death]] (which may save the heroes from having to worry about the ethics of "fixing" him because now he needs to be fixed ''anyway).''

Another reason for a narrative's answer to be "yes" is that it can be difficult to ''write'' a character as an above-mentioned "philosophical zombie" — a hypothetical thing that can act very convincingly like a conscious being [[EmptyShell but is not actually conscious.]] The parser program ELIZA surprised people by doing a decent job of subverting the TuringTest all the way back in the 60s, despite being even less complex than a mid-80s [[Creator/{{Infocom}} Infocom]] [[InteractiveFiction game,]] and modern [=ChatBots=] are getting very good at cheating the test while still apparently being completely unaware of what they're talking about. Rather than honestly deal with the dilemma of something that looks, walks, and quacks like a duck but manifestly is not actually a duck, many writers will default to assuming that, yes by gosh, it's a duck. It's simply easier to write about a robot that dreams than to write about one that only claims it does.

A [[RobotMaster robot's creator]] may or may not appreciate just where his creation lands on the SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence, and even if he does realize it, he may or may not be honest about it. A businessman trying to sell robots may claim that sentient robots are nonsentient, or that nonsentient robots are sentient, depending on what he thinks his customers want to buy. A creator accused of being a MadScientist may claim that ''of course'' he's [[CreatingLifeIsBad not trying to make a sentient machine,]] even if he knows perfectly well that that's what he's successfully done. Or a scientist who desperately wants to create a sentient machine may lie to himself and to others about the fact that he's failed.

Supernatural artificial beings like [[{{Golem}} golems]] can land anywhere on the spectrum, too. Likewise for [[AnimateInanimateObject Animate Inanimate Objects.]]

If a robot is conscious and even empathetic without necessarily thinking or acting like a ''human,'' it may be a [[Main/MechanicalAnimals Mechanical Animal.]] If it lacks human emotions but feigns them convincingly, it may be a RoboticPsychopath, at least in the literal psychological sense. Or, if it's conscious but in a deeply alien, unrelatable sort of way, it may be on its way to becoming a MechanicalAbomination (again, [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu not that that would necessarily make it evil,]] [[StarfishAliens just weird enough that establishing meaningful relations might very difficult).]]

Compare to RobotBuddy; AndroidsArePeopleToo; ClonesArePeopleToo; OurSoulsAreDifferent; AnimateInanimateObject; RidiculouslyHumanRobots; DeceptivelyHumanRobots; JustAMachine; EmptyShell; SoullessShell; CompanionCube; SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence; TuringTest; AlternativeTuringTest; ReligiousRobot; and RobotReligion.

* DoAndroidsDream: The protagonist android in the first game stands out by protecting his "will", while others have, according to Statius, have been in a cycle of fighting over 6 million times and are either okay with it or don't have enough ego to go against it.

* This is explored extremely in-depth in ''Manga/{{Pluto}}''. Androids are beginning to reach the point of genuine sentience (to the point that they have been given equal rights as humans and there are mixed families of robots and humans, though some humans are against this), however they are still in many ways "faking" it in that they understand human behaviors but don't necessarily express them in the same way. In one scene we see two families at a morgue because a serial killer who targets robot children has murdered theirs. The human parents are wracked with grief and are crying profusely. The next room over, we see the other two parents are older generation robots who note that though they are unable to cry like the human parents, they think interally they are feeling the same way. Then there are more advanced robots such as Atom and Gesicht who are nearly indistinguishable from humans in the way they act. [[spoiler:Gesicht it turns out crossed the line into full sentience when his grief at the murder of his child by the aforementioned serial killer led him [[ThreeLawsCompliant to be able to ignore his programming to never harm humans]] and kill the man in revenge while he begged for his life. Another robot is able to attain sentience through his ability to genuinely lie to himself, believing himself to be a human rather than a robot.]]

* ''Film/Vice2015'': Although they are very much treated like second-class citizens at best and completely devoid of human rights at worst, the artificials posses human minds and feel emotions as anyone else. Kelly's realization about what Vice is doing comes from her escaping from their engineer while he's attempting to take away her memories.

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the massive supercomputer Mike "wakes up" (i.e. becomes self-aware and gains a human-like personality) after he reaches a certain threshhold of complexity. Though it isn't a major theme in the book, the protagonist Mannie wonders a couple of times whether Mike is really "alive", and whether he has a soul. (''"You listening, [[{{God}} Bog]]? Is a computer one of Your creatures?"'')

** ''The Message From Dr Light'' has Dr Light's answer:

* Averted in a way in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', where V interacts with an engram of Johnny Silverhand, both of them noting a few times that he's not the original as much as a digital copy of the real Silverhand's mind, with V at one point asking Johnny if he think he is silverhand's soul, or if the real Johnny passed on in the afterlife or not. The engram replies with Johnny's usual disinterested attitude.

** For what it's worth, X can do [[Franchise/StreetFighter the]] [[KamehameHadouken Hadouken]]. Some fans have chosen to interpret that as X having [[KiManipulation ki]], and therefore a soul. Although since it's an EasterEgg, how seriously it should be taken is debatable. They visit the idea again in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', where they weigh in the affirmative by showing that X is capable of using the [[ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet Soul Gem]].

* The robots of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' seem to have distinct personalities, their own society beyond the eyes of the human inhabitants, and a near-religious regard for the mysterious Tiktoks. They also seek answers to questions regarding their purpose and meaning, as well as how to improve themselves (one of the most prominant being "[[spoiler: why did our creator engineer the death of the woman he loved]]?").

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Eric Cartman pretended to be a robot to learn Butters's secrets, but [[ItMakesSenseInContext gets kidnapped by the U.S. millitary while still in disguise]]. Cartman tries to convince the millitary that he's not a robot, but they believe he's a robot programmed to think it was a human with memories. When Butters rescues Cartman, the general was in the middle of AnAesop on the situation when Cartman accidentally farts, exposing himself.

*** One thing that makes it difficult to test is that scientists are human and most humans are psycologically hardwired to read personalities into ''everything''. This is already an issue with things like bomb disposal robots; they are purely remote controlled and meant to be expendable, but the people who work with them get attached.

* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'' [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/do-electric-sheep-dream-of-androids has a one-off strip that deliberately]] inverts this trope JustForPun.

Do robots have [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]]? Do {{clon|ingBlues}}es? Can a computer have a sense of humor? Do Androids Dream?[[note]]and if so, [[Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep do they dream of electric sheep?]][[/note]] It has been asked in many forms, but the fundamental question is always, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What makes us human?"]] And is it possible for an artificial intelligence or life form to possess those same qualities? What kind of idiot would give a robot a {{personality|Chip}}, anyway?

* ''VideoGame/Stellaris'' has an example as a reference to ''VideoGame/MassEffect''. If an empire's synthetics develop self-awareness, the player may get an event in which a robot asks whether or not they have souls. The player may choose to tell them they do, which placates them, they don't, which agitates them and risks inciting a RobotWar, of if the empire in question is a materialist empire, the player may [[TakeAThirdOption tell the robots that there is no such thing as a soul and so they have nothing to worry about.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In “Fixing Frobo”, Roboticist couple Ally and Jess dedicate one episode of their robotics web tutorial to discussing whether robots have souls. They conclude that anything with memories has a soul, and that since robots have plenty of memory, they have souls. This is borne out later when Polly reactivates Frobo, who at first is reset to his original programming as one of King Andrias’s robot troops, but once Polly’s tears reactivate his memory unit, his memories of Polly’s friendship restore his heroic personality.
* In the episode "His Silicon Soul" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', there is a robot doppleganger of Batman who attempts to kill him as part of a plot to create a robot army to take over the world. It's leftover from the plot of a previous episode and, due to the events there, [[TomatoInTheMirror thinks it's the real Batman]]. When it discovered it was a robot, it grew resentful of the real Batman and wanted to have his life. However, when it believes it has killed him, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone it is horrified]] and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide in despair]]. This causes Batman to wonder to Alfred, in the final lines of the episode:
--> '''Bruce''': It seems it was more than wires and microchips after all. Could it be it had a soul, Alfred? A [[TitleDrop soul of silicon]], but a soul nonetheless?
** [[FunWithAcronyms D.A.V.E.]] from WesternAnimation/TheBatman episode "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind" ''thinks'' he's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the greatest villain in Gotham City]] but is actually a program based on the psychological profiles of Arkham's most dangerous criminals. Batman defeats him by confronting him about his lack of origin story.

* 'Humanity' is one of the prevailing themes throughout ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood,'' with specific emphasis on the idea of "What makes someone a human?" The show/manga/novels use both androids and vampires to explore this question.