History Main / RidiculouslyHumanRobots

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31299935 Are You There God? It's Me, Shouta]]'': For Class 1-A's two-week EggSitting project, the support class makes robot babies that are so realistic they can cry for hours, [[EatingMachine eat]], throw up, pee, and poop, much to the chagrin of the students who actually have to take care of them. Kirishima thinks it's payback for all the times they were bothered with last-minute costume adjustments.

* ''[[Are You There God? It's Me, Shouta]]'': For Class 1-A's two-week EggSitting project, the support class makes robot babies that are so realistic they can cry for hours, [[EatingMachine eat]], throw up, pee, and poop, much to the chagrin of the students who actually have to take care of them. Kirishima thinks it's payback for all the times they were bothered with last-minute costume adjustments.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/WebOriginal

[[folder:Real Life]]
%%* [[http://www.projectaiko.com/ Project Aiko]].
%%* [[http://news.cnet.com/japans-latest-supermodel-a-robot/ Japan's supermodel robot.]]
* While [[http://gizmodo.com/5145287/cloaca-no5-is-a-monster-pooping-machine this contraption]] may not look human at all, it does something you certainly didn't expect any machine to be capable of. [[note]]For those who haven't read the article, it's an elaborate robotic version of the human digestive system which [[{{squick}} is even capable of producing its own feces]].[[/note]]
* [[http://www.gizmag.com/us-navy-octavia-robot/15442/ Octavia]] is a Navy project to make a robot with accurate facial expressions. Its planned use is for rescue robots, which will be able to use this ability to communicate faster and more accurately with frightened humans.
* A certain philosophical [[http://www.asimovlaws.com/articles/archives/2004/07/why_we_need_fri_1.html current]] on TheSingularity states that any AI, potentially capable of self-improvement, that wasn't also ridiculously human (or even better, super-humane) in terms of morality and empathy would be a lot more dangerous than the whole stock of nuclear weapons on planet Earth. It makes sense... it's the difference between [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} SkyNet]] and the [[Literature/TheCulture Minds]].
* Robotics Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro [[http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/humanoids/hiroshi-ishiguro-the-man-who-made-a-copy-of-himself made an eerily realistic robot of himself]] that he can control remotely, using a camera to match the robot's facial expressions to his own.

%%** This trope was the intention, with the creator race wanting to play God and see if they could create life, as their technology was absolutely capable of creating androids that didn't need to eat or sleep. The fact that their creations were so perfect they were capable of attaining a soul, which is a measurable concept in-universe, would appear to be the epitome of success. Of course, that makes it complicated for those that wanted to use the Androids as a servant class.

* Starfinder also has Sentient Robotic Organisms (SROs), which are mentally similar to androids (complete with [[SoulPower souls]] and free will), but appear much less humanoid and much more mechanical from the outside.

{{Robot}}s in television -- particularly comedic television -- are usually human-like in ways that very few sane programmers would deem useful. It can be something as simple as being philosophical (wanting to understand human emotion, wondering if they [[OurSoulsAreDifferent have a soul]], etc.), but can extend to such things as robot social cliques, robot food, robot entertainment, robot religion, and even [[{{Sexbot}} robot sex]]. It doesn't matter if it makes no sense in the context of a mechanical servant, or even if it's truly undesirable, the designers have [[PersonalityChip put it in there]] for [[MadScientist some twisted reason]]. This will often take the form of having a robot that looks and behaves ''exactly'' like a human.

However, it's rare that a series explicitly spells this out, as, ultimately, most authors and [[{{Worldbuilding}} worldbuilders]] adopt this trope because a few illogical design choices are a small price to pay for keeping robotic characters out of the UncannyValley. In fact, these [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence human-like]] {{A|rtificialIntelligence}}Is are often put right up next to similar, yet [[TheStoic seemingly emotionless equivalents]] that function perfectly.

A corollary to this is that robots are comfortable in their own oddball version of society, and consider human conventions bizarre and silly. You'd think they would be programmed to be familiar with human behavior, and find it perfectly normal. Robots from places without humans, who are exempt from this complaint, curiously tend to adapt to human customs faster.

Robots in television -- particularly comedic television -- are usually human-like in ways that very few sane programmers would deem useful. It can be something as simple as being philosophical (wanting to understand human emotion, wondering if they [[OurSoulsAreDifferent have a soul]], etc.), but can extend to such things as robot social cliques, robot food, robot entertainment, robot religion, and even [[{{Sexbot}} robot sex]]. It doesn't matter if it makes no sense in the context of a mechanical servant, or even if it's truly undesirable, the designers have [[PersonalityChip put it in there]] for [[MadScientist some twisted reason]]. This will often take the form of having a robot that looks ''exactly'' like a human.

The degree to which this is actually "ridiculous" varies depending on the setting. In some cases they get a free pass -- it may be that an intelligence, artificial or not, ''needs'' to be vaguely human-like in its basic outlines, with emotions, interests, motivations, et cetera simply to be functional for certain tasks, such as those requiring a great deal of long-term autonomy. It may be that robots ''need'' to think like humans to understand human concepts such as ethics and morality, and thus refrain from -- to quote VideoGame/DwarfFortress players -- [[UnusualEuphemism Fun]] activities such as [[VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips trying to turn all matter in the Universe into paperclips]]. It may be, if human intelligence itself is merely an evolved set of functions held together in an evolved psychological architecture, that any society with sufficiently ubiquitous and flexible automation [[MechanicalEvolution will necessarily have the means to produce something human-like]]. It may be that emotions, desires, and curiosity are unavoidable side-effects of full sentience, or it may simply be that humans prefer {{Sexbot}}s [[PersonalityChip not to behave like automated teller machines]]. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, Ridiculously Human Robots make sense.

However, it's rare that a series explicitly spells this out, as, ultimately, most authors and worldbuilders adopt this trope because a few illogical design choices are a small price to pay for keeping robotic characters out of the UncannyValley. In fact, these [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence human-like]] {{A|rtificialIntelligence}}Is are often put right up next to similar, yet [[TheStoic seemingly emotionless equivalents]] that function perfectly.

Robots in television -- particularly comedic television -- are usually human-like in ways that very few sane programmers would deem useful. It can be something as simple as being philosophical (wanting to understand human emotion, wondering if they [[OurSoulsAreDifferent have a soul]], etc.), but can extend to such things as robot social cliques, robot food, robot entertainment, robot religion, and even robot sex. It doesn't matter if it makes no sense in the context of a mechanical servant, or even if it's truly undesirable, the designers have [[PersonalityChip put it in there]] for [[MadScientist some twisted reason]]. This will often take the form of having a robot that looks ''exactly'' like a human.

%%* [[http://www.projectaiko.com/ Project Aiko]]. [[UncannyValley *shudder*]]
%%* [[http://news.cnet.com/japans-latest-supermodel-a-robot/ Japan's supermodel robot.]] [[UncannyValley It's so realistic it's]] even more creepy than Aiko.

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[[caption-width-right:270:You never expectd a robot to swear, did you?]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mario_rabbids_kingdom_battle_world_3_3__benefits_of_getting_lost_18_44_screenshot.png]]

[[quoteright:348:[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bender_smoking.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:348:He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries.\\
[[SmokingIsCool The cigars make him look cool.]]]]

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e8ohd6t.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:270:You never expectd a robots to humanly cuss, did you?]]

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e8ohd6t.jpg]]

[[quoteright:348:
[[VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle [[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/MarioPlusRabbidsKingdomBattle https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e8ohd6t.jpg]] ]]

[[quoteright:348:[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bender_smoking.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:348:He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries.\\
[[SmokingIsCool The cigars make him look cool.]]]]

* Milan from ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'', who serves as the robot caretaker of the protagonist Sinbell, behaves way more like a human than a robot, including having emotions and compassion (at one point telling Sinbell "you came from mommy's tummy!" after Sinbell tries asking where he's from) despite her mechanical exterior. The UnroboticReveal at the end sheds some light behind her origin - it turns out Sinbell's biological mother, Aya, gave up her life to save him from a gas explosion, and before she dies, request for her mind to be transferred into an android, the prototype caretaker Milan.