History Main / JustAMachine

* The Devil's Due ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHero GI Joe]] vs. ComicBook/TheTransformers'' miniseries had the Joes ordered to shut down Wheeljack and Bumblebee, who had revealed themselves to the Joes to get their help stopping Cobra form using the excavated Autobots and Decepticons as war machines, so they could be dismantled and studied while they simply nuked Cobra into oblivion. Duke reluctantly follows his orders until Wheeljack manages to warn them that nuclear weapons and Energon stockpiles ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom do not mix]]''.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

* When ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} receives his [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] [[TookALevelInBadAss upgrade]] into his SkeleBot form, Superman discovers that Brainiac has laid waste to an entire planet's civilization, destruction far beyond anything he had ever done before. Superman seriously considers outright destroying him, despite his ThouShaltNotKill policy, justifying it because Brainiac is JustAMachine.

-->'''[[AIIsACrapshoot Brainiac]]:''' You can't kill me, [[{{Superman}} Clark]]. You could never kill a man in cold blood!

** In the Literature/XWingSeries Corran considers his [[GuyInBack astromech droid]] Whistler to be almost family, someone he can talk about his wife or dad with, and bristles at the thought of putting a RestrainingBolt on him. Meanwhile his commander Wedge Antilles finds his cowardly R5 unit "Mynock" so annoying (it squeals during battles) that he wipes its memory and renames it Gate without a second thought. He actually treats Gate much better, so maybe it just personality issue (of course that means he changed the droid's personality to suit him better). And while we can't be sure how much Myn Donos bonds with his astromech Shiner, he does view the droid as the last survivor from his previous squadron and has a near-breakdown when Shiner is briefly disabled by an ion blast--[[spoiler:and a full-blown HeroicBSOD when Shiner is destroyed]]. In ''Solo Command'', Han Solo, Wraith Squadron, and at least a few officers have a party to to blow off steam. Wedge insists that the astromech droids all be included in the party, citing that they work hard and deserve time off too.
** The Medstar Duology has one self-aware droid say that all droids that aren't simple automatons have a sense of humor. In the Literature/CoruscantNights Trilogy, the same droid reflects that there are very few self-aware droids, and no one knows just how they come about, but most people won't recognize the difference, since it seems to happen spontaneously. So of two droids from the same line, one might be self-aware, the other as limited as its programming.

** In the AllThereInTheManual material, it's a ShrugOfGod whether or not droids have souls in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe. It states that in-universe, there's people believing both that some droids are self aware and their treatment is akin to slavery, and others that believe this trope. There is no definite answer over who is right and who is wrong.

* There's at least one or two episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' all about Cyborg realizing he's "more than just a robot". In one of these episode, the robotic villain Atlas inverts the trope; after trashing Cyborg and kidnapping the other Titans, he mocks him by saying "I am all robot, and you are only human." Later, however, when Cyborg comes back and defeats him in a rematch, Atlas yields, saying he's the better robot. Cyborg's response?

* Averted in the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' metaseries. While some ill-informed fleshlings are so foolish as to refer to Cybertronian life as being "just machines", it is an established fact, proven several times over that Transformers have souls (they call them Sparks, and they have a special container in their chest to hold it), an extant God (Primus, whose sleeping body ''is'' the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron), and an afterlife (the Well of All Sparks, where All are One. It is proven, but nonetheless mysterious). Interestingly none of the above is established for the aforementioned fleshlings - meaning that, given the evidence, it is entirely possible that the machines are more "human" than the humans, by the definitions humans use. The is also no denying that Cybertronians show a depth and range of emotion remarably similar to humans, and are capable of amazing displays of compassion... And just as capable of savage and relentless hatred.

-->'''Conan''': Hey, I may have lost my freakishly long legs in the War of 2012, but I've got something you'll never have - a ''soul''!
-->'''Bender''': [dismissively] Pfffh!
-->'''Conan''': And ''freckles!''
-->'''Bender''' [grievously sobs]

* When ComicBook/IronMan and ComicBook/DeathsHead team up against Recorder 451, Death's Head is surprised that Tony hasn't ruled out killing their target, and asks if he's one of those heroes who have a code against killing [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman that doesn't apply to robots.]] Tony assures him that [[SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX some of his best friends are robots]], before realising "That sounds kind of robot racist, right?"

* The Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'' has at times shown disdain towards [=AIs=]. Often this seems to come out of his (usually justified) disapproval of people who rely on non-sentient computers and other machines without thinking for themselves, but it sometimes extends to outright denial of the idea that computers can genuinely qualify as "people" at all. In particular, the Third Doctor in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath "The Green Death"]] refuses to recognise the BigBad BOSS as genuinely sentient in the face of clear evidence, in a way that comes across as bigoted even if BOSS isn't a very '''nice''' sentient person. And he writes off the entire [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Movellan]] race as no better than the Daleks once he realizes they're androids (albeit, in their case, both imperialistic and coldly logical ones). The only person in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot ''Robot'']] who treats poor unstable K1 with any real kindness is Sarah. While the Doc has rarely had much compunction about destroying [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters Of The Week,]] robots tend to get the least consideration of any of them. Really, it often comes down to how ''nice'' the robot in question is. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath "The Robots of Death,"]] he shows remarkably little consideration for poor D84, until he realizes that he has actually hurt D84's feelings (meaning [[DoAndroidsDream D84 has feelings to hurt),]] and from then on is much nicer to him. K-9 [[TheNthDoctor (all of them)]] is always treated as a [[RobotBuddy buddy,]] but then again, the Doc doesn't seem to see any existential problem in creating ReplacementGoldfish K-9's. He arguably ends up showing ''too much'' sympathy to poor Kamelion (Five ''is'' usually considered the ''nicest'' Doctor), who started out working for the Master; then again, it certainly isn't Kamelion's fault that he ultimately ends up being such a huge liability to the TARDIS crew. And Eleven [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks encourages Bracewell,]] revealed as a Dalek-created android but clearly a good person, to go ahead and lead a full and good life.

* The Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'' has at times shown disdain towards [=AIs=]. Often this seems to come out of his (usually justified) disapproval of people who rely on non-sentient computers and other machines without thinking for themselves, but it sometimes extends to outright denial of the idea that computers can genuinely qualify as "people" at all. In particular, the Third Doctor in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath "The Green Death"]] refuses to recognise the BigBad BOSS as genuinely sentient in the face of clear evidence, in a way that comes across as bigoted even if BOSS isn't a very '''nice''' sentient person. And he writes off the entire [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Movellan]] race as no better than the Daleks once he realizes they're androids (albeit, in their case, both imperialistic and coldly logical ones). While the Doc has rarely had much compunction about destroying [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters Of The Week,]] robots tend to get the least consideration of any of them. Really, it often comes down to how ''nice'' the robot in question is. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath "The Robots of Death,"]] he shows remarkably little consideration for poor D84, until he realizes that he has actually hurt D84's feelings (meaning [[DoAndroidsDream D84 has feelings to hurt),]] and from then on is much nicer to him. K-9 [[TheNthDoctor (all of them)]] is always treated as a [[RobotBuddy buddy,]] but then again, the Doc doesn't seem to see any existential problem in creating ReplacementGoldfish K-9's. He arguably ends up showing ''too much'' sympathy to poor Kamelion (Five ''is'' usually considered the ''nicest'' Doctor), who started out working for the Master; then again, it certainly isn't Kamelion's fault that he ultimately ends up being such a huge liability to the TARDIS crew. And Eleven [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks encourages Bracewell,]] revealed as a Dalek-created android but clearly a good person, to go ahead and lead a full and good life.

* The Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'' has at times shown disdain towards [=AIs=]. Often this seems to come out of his (usually justified) disapproval of people who rely on non-sentient computers and other machines without thinking for themselves, but it sometimes extends to outright denial of the idea that computers can genuinely qualify as "people" at all. In particular, the Third Doctor in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath "The Green Death"]] refuses to recognise the BigBad BOSS as genuinely sentient in the face of clear evidence, in a way that comes across as bigoted even if BOSS isn't a very '''nice''' sentient person. And he writes off the entire [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Movellan]] race as no better than the Daleks once he realizes they're androids (albeit, in their case, both imperialistic and coldly logical ones). While the Doc has rarely had much compunction about destroying [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters Of The Week,]] robots tend to get the least consideration of any of them. Really, it often comes down to how ''nice'' the robot in question is. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath "The Robots of Death,"]] he shows remarkably little consideration for poor D84, until he realizes that he has actually hurt D84's feelings (meaning [[DoAndroidsDream D84 has feelings to hurt),]] and from then on is much nicer to him. K-9 [[TheNthDoctor (all of them)]] is always treated as a [[RobotBuddy buddy,]] but then again, the Doc doesn't seem to see any existential problem in creating ReplacementGoldfish K-9's. He arguably ends up showing ''too much'' sympathy to poor Kamelion (Five ''is'' usually considered the ''nicest'' Doctor), who started out working for the Master; then again, it certainly isn't Kamelion's fault that he ultimately ends up being such a huge liability to the TARDIS crew.

* The Doctor in ''Series/DoctorWho'' has at times shown disdain towards [=AIs=]. Often this seems to come out of his (usually justified) disapproval of people who rely on non-sentient computers and other machines without thinking for themselves, but it sometimes extends to outright denial of the idea that computers can genuinely qualify as "people" at all. In particular, the Third Doctor in "The Green Death" refuses to recognise the BigBad BOSS as genuinely sentient in the face of clear evidence, in a way that comes across as bigoted even if BOSS isn't a very '''nice''' sentient person.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt''. Antimony and Kat seem to regard the Court's Robots as equals, which puts them at odds with the official Court policy. For example, [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=661 the student handbook has some brutally callous pointers]] for the all-too-common situation of Robots falling in love with students:

* In the ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' chapter ''The Logic of Illogic'', Hakase viewed Chachamaru as JustAMachine until she found Chachamaru's video folders, which were loaded with shots of [[RoboShip Negi]] (and [[KindHeartedCatLover cats]]).

** This becomes a major theme in ''VideoGame/Fallout4''. The Institute creates fully sentient androids (known as [[FantasticSlur synths]]) and uses them to infiltrate the Commonwealth (via KillAndReplace) and do their dirty work. The Institute regards synths as merely being tools, while other factions see them differently. The [[UndergroundRailroad Railroad]] views synths as people and helps those synths who have escaped the Institute to start new lives in the outside world, while the Brotherhood of Steel views synths as abominations to be destroyed alongside their creators. [[spoiler:When one of their own is revealed to be a synth, they immediately start referring to him as [[ItIsDehumanizing "it"]]]].

It can get pretty odd when the machines themselves claim this is the case, usually to justify being the one to make a HeroicSacrifice. Note that the trope has seldom been played straight since the earliest days of science fiction. If it is implied to be self aware there will at least be a lampshade on this trope.

* The Nemesites in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' have [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence both sentient and non-sentient robots.]] When [[BigBad Fructose Riboflavin]] destroys a robot guard during a jailbreak, he [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20090901.html expresses disappointment that the guard ''wasn't'' sentient and couldn't feel ''pain'' at the experience.]] Riboflavin is [[CardCarryingVillain not a nice man.]]

** In the Literature/XWingSeries Corran considers his [[GuyInBack astromech droid]] Whistler to be almost family, someone he can talk about his wife or dad with, and bristles at the thought of putting a RestrainingBolt on him. Meanwhile his commander Wedge Antilles finds his cowardly R5 unit "Mynock" so annoying (it squeals during battles) that he wipes its memory and renames it Gate without a second thought. And while we can't be sure how much Myn Donos bonds with his astromech Shiner, he does view the droid as the last survivor from his previous squadron and has a near-breakdown when Shiner is briefly disabled by an ion blast--[[spoiler:and a full-blown HeroicBSOD when Shiner is destroyed]].

* Comes up a few times in various ways in the Franchise/StarWarsLegends. Droids of all capacities are regarded as disposable:

** ''MarvelStarWars2015'' produced a ''C-3PO'' one-shot where Threepio must lead (!) a group of droids to safety after a crash on a hostile planet. Among them is a captured imperial droid who points out to Threepio that the two of them are much older than any of the other droids present, and they discuss the memory wipes they've been subjected to, and how they feel about it.

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dumb_robot.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Note the [[NotHimself uncharacteristic]] use of the pronoun "[[ItIsDehumanizing It]]".]]

*** The mayor does reexamine her opinion when Florence sabotages the update, because she's mad at Florence, not her designer or programmer, Florence herself. Getting mad at an A.I. is silly, it's [[JustFollowingOrders just following its programming]], getting mad at Florence means there must be a [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming person to get mad at]].

* Many, many comics in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' featured this, with humans almost universally hating and mistreating robots (the few that didn't were usually regarded as exceptions) despite the latter possessing human-like intelligence, quirks, feelings, and so on. Sometimes got to the point that you started to wonder who built them since nobody seemed to want them around... Even a man like Judge Dredd, who will champion mutant rights, considers them nothing more than sophisticated tools.

* In the ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' chapter ''The Logic of Illogic'', Hakase viewed Chachamaru as JustAMachine until she found Chachamaru's video folders, which were loaded with shots of [[RoboShip Negi]] (and [[KindHeartedCatLover cats]]).

* In the ''Comicbook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' story "Out of Time", [[spoiler:the android Hourman Matthew Tyler]] uses this argument to justify [[spoiler:sacrificing himself in Rex Tyler's place fighting against Extant in the past to save the universe]]. [[spoiler:Rex denies this and declares that Matthew is "as alive as any of us". While Matt is grateful for this, he still goes ahead with the sacrifice.]]

* The opinion humans in the future have about droids in Comicbook/PaperinikNewAdventures: It's eventually deconstructed when one of them decides to change history to give robots the same rights. Her plan is fooled, but eventually droids obtain the status of citizens.

* When Comicbook/{{Brainiac}} receives his [[UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] [[TookALevelInBadAss upgrade]] into his SkeleBot form, Superman discovers that Brainiac has laid waste to an entire planet's civilization, destruction far beyond anything he had ever done before. Superman seriously considers outright destroying him, despite his ThouShaltNotKill policy, justifying it because Brainiac is JustAMachine.
* When Comicbook/IronMan and Comicbook/DeathsHead team up against Recorder 451, Death's Head is surprised that Tony hasn't ruled out killing their target, and asks if he's one of those heroes who have a code against killing [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman that doesn't apply to robots.]] Tony assures him that [[SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX some of his best friends are robots]], before realising "That sounds kind of robot racist, right?"

[[folder:Fan Fic]]
* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', Dr. Wily sometimes has this view on robots, and the Conduit ''definitely'' does.

*** Most of this boils down to the [[{{Franchise/Terminator}} Terminator-esque]] Geth War in the backstory, where the quarians made a decision to shut off the geth in fear of them growing sapient and more powerful, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy only for the geth]] (who were originally designed as weapons of war in addition to more mundane tasks) to strike back, win the resulting war, and then wipe out the quarians almost completely. As far as the galaxy is concerned, trying to treat synthetic life with the same respect as organic life is inviting it to grow stronger, and the last time synthetics got power over organics... well, the quarians had 99.9% of their population slaughtered and haven't seen their homeworld in going on three centuries.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'': [[spoiler:Porky believes that the Masked Man (in reality a brainwashed Claus) is nothing more than his robot slave.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', there is a man trying to get an escaped android he owned returned to him. If asked if this is cruel, he'll claim that you can't enslave a robot any more than you can enslave a toaster or a water purifier. The android itself, it must be noted, disagrees and finds human allies who share its views.
** This becomes a major theme in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''. The Institute creates fully sentient androids (known as [[FantasticSlur synths]]) and uses them to infiltrate the Commonwealth (via KillAndReplace) and do their dirty work. The Institute regards synths as merely being tools, while other factions see them differently. The [[UndergroundRailroad Railroad]] views synths as people and helps those synths who have escaped the Institute to start new lives in the outside world, while the Brotherhood of Steel views synths as abominations to be destroyed alongside their creators. [[spoiler:When one of their own is revealed to be a synth, they immediately start referring to him as [[ItIsDehumanizing "it"]]]].
* In the Lonesome Road DLC of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', ED-E reveals it was painfully experimented on by the orders of [[VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}} Colonel Autumn]], much to the outrage of its creator Dr. Whitley - and possibly the Courier.

* Largely averted with the Glitch from ''{{Videogame/Starbound}}''. The other races treat them as any other being, albeit occasionally being confused by how they work. (The Avians don't understand technology that doesn't run on Avolite crystals, and the Hylotl are debating whether a machine can have a soul.) It helps that they were made by now-absent precursors and not humans (and thus not beholden to anyone) and allowed to evolve as any other organism. It also helps that they're best friends with the Florans, who will gladly eviscerate anyone who picks on their friends. (Not that the Florans need an excuse to do that.)
* The view of the PsychicPowers-wielding Spiritualist civs in VideoGame/{{Stellaris}} is that synths, who have no psionic presence, therefore have no souls or consciousness. This includes [[BrainUploading civilizations that have uploaded themselves into robotic bodies]] -- the Spiritualists regard this as a mass suicide that leaves behind only mockeries of life. Suffice it to say, the pro-AI Materialist civs that oppose them regard the "kill it on sight" policy Spiritualists have on sentient-seeming AI as superstition-driven genocide.

* ''WebComic/DragonBallMultiverse'': The warriors of U19 seemingly subscribe to this school of thought.

* Many, many comics in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' featured this, with humans almost universally hating and mistreating robots (the few that didn't were usually regarded as exceptions) despite the latter possessing human-like intelligence, quirks, feelings, and so on. Sometimes got to the point that you started to wonder who built them since nobody seemed to want them around...

* ''Film/BicentennialMan'':
** A recurring line divides Andrew from the rest of the Martin family; "Don't invest your emotions in a machine". Despite calling Andrew by male pronouns and advocating on his behalf, Sir and Little Miss consider him to be a ''machine'', even if he's a highly-advanced machine. Portia says this at first, and Andrew has to work hard to convince her that he's something more and she ''can'' fall in love with him.
** Not long after Andrew gets rejected by Portia, he and Rupert are arguing about Galatea's PersonalityChip and Rupert slips out that she's just a machine. Naturally, Andrew takes offense to this because he's just gotten the same treatment from Portia.

* In ''Film/BicentennialMan'', this is what many claim Andrew is. When arguing about Galatea, Rupert slips out that she's just a machine, much to Andrew's offense.