History Main / DoAndroidsDream

Compare to JustAMachine; AndroidsArePeopleToo; ClonesArePeopleToo; OurSoulsAreDifferent; AnimateInanimateObject; CompanionCube; AlternativeTuringTest; ReligiousRobot; and RobotReligion.

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. And of course, it may be unclear to the creator, as well as to the audience, just how sentient the robot is.

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.

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 whether he's had any real success at it.

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 whether he's had any real success at all.

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 others about whether he's had any real success at all.

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 others about just how successful he's been at it.

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 done. Or a scientist who desperately wants to create a sentient machine may lie to himself and others about just how successful he's been at it.

Another reason for a narrative's answer to be "yes" is that it can be surprisingly difficult to write a character as a so-called "philosophical zombie" (see Real Life, below) — a hypothetical thing that can act very convincingly like a conscious being but is not actually conscious. The parser program ELIZA surprised people by doing a decent job of subverting the Turing Test all the way back in the 60s, despite being even less complex than a mid-80s Infocom 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.

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 capable of true human feeling, despite everything we've previously seen them do.

It can also put the audience through an emotional wringer 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 capable of true human feeling, despite everything we've previously seen them do.

It can also put the audience through an emotional wringer 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: Eve or Joi]] are capable of true human feeling, despite everything we've previously seen them do.

Another reason for a narrative's answer to be "yes" is that it can be surprisingly difficult to write a character as a so-called "philosophical zombie" (see Real Life, below) — a hypothetical thing that can act very convincingly like a conscious being but is not actually conscious. The parser program ELIZA surprised people by doing a decent job of subverting the Turing Test all the way back in the sixties, despite being even less complex than a mid-80s Infocom 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.

Another reason for a narrative's answer to be "yes" is that it can be surprisingly difficult to write a character as a so-called "philosophical zombie" (see Real Life, below) — a hypothetical thing that can act very convincingly like a conscious being but is not actually conscious. The parser program ELIZA surprised people by doing a decent job of subverting the Turing Test all the way back in the sixties, despite being even less complex than a mid-80s Infocom 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.

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 Franchise/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).''

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': Android 16's lack of a soul is used as BookEnds for his character, first brough up right before Android 18 activates him and again when Cell finally kills him. [[spoiler:Of course, the ending of episode 60 shows that he actually ''did'' have a soul with a picture of him in the afterlife surrounded by birds.]]

* Similarly, on ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersGenerationOne The Transformers,]]'' Starscream came back as a ghost.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* Robots characters, including Happy S. and others, in ''Animation/HappyHeroes'', can ''dream.''
[[/folder]]

Compare to JustAMachine; AndroidsArePeopleToo; ClonesArePeopleToo; OurSoulsAreDifferent; AnimateInanimateObject; CompanionCube; ReligiousRobot; and RobotReligion.

** The most extreme case of this is the original manga and the film based on it: [[spoiler: Major Kusanagi actually merges her consciousness with The Puppeteer, a rogue A.I., and becomes able to live in both the physical and digital world. So is she a human soul who can exist in the digital world? A human who spontaneously uploaded herself? An A.I. with the memories of the original human?]]