History Main / RidiculouslyHumanRobots

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

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[[caption-width-right:348:He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries.\\
[[SmokingIsCool The cigars make him look cool.]]]]

* Warforged in TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons's TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} setting apply, though they're half-robot-half-golem... thingies. They were originally created to be warriors, and unexpectedly developed the capacity for emotion and self-awareness. Some later material implied their supposed creators at least partly reverse-engineered them from relics found in Xen'drik, which given the history of that continent would allow several possibilities for why a constructed race capable of emotion and self-awareness would be desired.

* [[TabletopGame/NewHorizon Wave Form Androids,]] more commonly known as Wafans. Oddly, the rulebook explicitly states that they're people, not robots... [[HypocriticalHumor before then going on to explain the artificial objects that form the core of their intellectual abilities.]] Granted, they're apparently "not made in factories." Whatever that means.

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

* ''Fanfic/SteelSoulSaga'': What Sweetie Belle is, and even she didn't know it. She gets a RoboticReveal in the first story.

* Chevrolet from ''3 Level Combination''.

* Jimmy The Robot of Music/TheAquabats He can express emotions, like love and snarkiness, and is a talented keyboardist.

* Mentioned in the ''Music/{{Monstercat}}'' Song "Toothless Hawkins and his Robot Jazz Band"

** 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.

* [[TabletopGame/NewHorizon Wave Form Androids,]] more commonly known as Wafans. Oddly, the rulebook explicitly states that they're people, not robots... [[HypocriticalHumor before then going on to explain the artificial objects that form the core of their intellectual abilities.]]
** Granted, they're apparently "not made in factories." Whatever that means.

* [[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]] [[UpToEleven even more creepy than Aiko.]]

See also InstantAIJustAddWater, SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids, {{Fembot}} and RobotGirl. Compare and contrast with ArtificialHuman, RobotMe, or MechanicalLifeforms. The more human-like ones are sometimes an EatingMachine and may indulge in RoboRomance. May become subject to a RoboticReveal if the robot looks ridiculously human enough to pass as one. Expect the reveal to have some {{squick}} if it's done via means like an UnusualUserInterface. Contrast DeceptivelyHumanRobots, for when the apparent humanity is only skin deep. Also contrast MechanicalMonster, where it is completely inhuman in both psychology and appearance. The inverse on nearly every level of CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul. Contrast ForgotHeWasARobot and StarfishRobots.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Anime and Manga}}
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Comic Books}}

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Video Games}}

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Web Original}}
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Western Animation}}

[[caption-width-right:348:He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries. [[SmokingIsCool The cigars make him look cool.]]]]

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[[caption-width-right:348:He needs the alcohol for powering his batteries. [[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking The cigars]] [[RuleOfCool make him look]] [[SmokingIsCool cool.]]]]

* In the KPop girl group project LOONA, the video for the first subunit's song Love & Live implies that the new member Vivi is a hyper-realistic humanoid robot. We see her charging herself when nobody's looking, throwing basketballs with computed accuracy, brushing aside her hair to reveal a digital timer, and faltering at the end of the video when the timer runs out. In one of the last shots, her eye starts to glow.

* Music/DoctorSteelearner plates robot band. Which malfunction on his Propaganda DVD, but finally work in his video for "Childhood Don't A-Go-Go". [[spoiler:At least in miniature...]]

* Music/DoctorSteel's robot band. Which malfunction on his Propaganda DVD, but finally work in his video for "Childhood Don't A-Go-Go". [[spoiler:At least in miniature...]]

* In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/295408/marionettes Marionettes]]'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Trixie turns out to be one, as does Lightning Dust and Diamond Tiara, something they were unaware of.]] Justified as [[spoiler:they seem to have been created to imitate ponies on purpose.]]

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 that humans prefer {{Sexbot}}s [[PersonalityChip not to behave like automated teller machines]]. 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]], or it may simply be that emotions, desires, and curiosity are unavoidable side-effects of full sentience. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, Ridiculously Human Robots make sense.

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 such [[UnusualEuphemism Fun]] activities as [[VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips trying to turn all matter in the Universe into paperclips]]. It may be that humans prefer {{Sexbot}}s [[PersonalityChip not to behave like automated teller machines]]. 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]], or it may simply be that emotions, desires, and curiosity are unavoidable side-effects of full sentience. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, Ridiculously Human Robots make sense.

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. On the other hand, perhaps humans prefer {{Sexbot}}s [[PersonalityChip not to behave like automated teller machines]]. 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]], or it may simply be that emotions, desires, and curiosity are unavoidable side-effects of full sentience. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, Ridiculously Human Robots make sense. Also, a few illogical design choices are a small price to pay for keeping robotic characters out of the UncannyValley. However, it's rare that a series explicitly spells this out, and often, these [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence human-like]] {{A|rtificialIntelligence}}Is are put right up next to similar, yet [[TheStoic emotionless equivalents]] that function perfectly.

->''"Being a robot's great, but we don't have emotions, and sometimes that makes me very sad."''
-->-- '''Bender''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', [[WhatIf Anthology of Interest II]]

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots/{{Web Comics}}

* ''Music/{{Vocaloid}}'' is a series of computer programs meant to imitate human voices, and the general consensus is that in-universe they qualify as these.

* All Music/{{Vocaloid}}s are such excellent examples of this, and it doesn't help that their personality varies with their song writers.

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. On the other hand, perhaps humans prefer {{Sexbot}}s [[PersonalityChip not to behave like automated teller machines]]. 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]], or it may simply be that emotions, desires, and curiosity are unavoidable side-effects of full sentience. Whatever serves the needs of the well-reasoned plot or setting. In these cases, RidiculouslyHumanRobots make sense. Also, a few illogical design choices are a small price to pay for keeping robotic characters out of the UncannyValley. However, it's rare that a series explicitly spells this out, and often, these [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence human-like]] {{A|rtificialIntelligence}}Is are put right up next to similar, yet [[TheStoic emotionless equivalents]] that function perfectly.

See also InstantAIJustAddWater, SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids, and RobotGirl. Compare and contrast with ArtificialHuman, RobotMe, or MechanicalLifeforms. The more human-like ones are sometimes an EatingMachine and may indulge in RoboRomance. May become subject to a RoboticReveal if the robot looks ridiculously human enough to pass as one. Expect the reveal to have some {{squick}} if it's done via means like an UnusualUserInterface. Contrast DeceptivelyHumanRobots, for when the apparent humanity is only skin deep. Also contrast MechanicalMonster, where it is completely inhuman in both psychology and appearance. The inverse on nearly every level of CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul. Contrast ForgotHeWasARobot and StarfishRobots.

* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Ash's Pokédex starts out with [[DeadpanSnarker a very]] [[SourSupporter special]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold personality]], which only seems to grow more and more human as the story progresses.

* A certain philosophical [[http://www.asimovlaws.com/articles/archives/2004/07/why_we_need_fri_1.html current]] on The Singularity 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]].

* The bots of SteamPoweredGiraffe have distinct personalities, and are shaped and sound very much like humans. The latter point is justified, since the "bots" are played by humans in heavy makeup.

* In '''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines''', Ash's Pokédex starts out with [[DeadpanSnarker a very]] [[SourSupporter special]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold personality]], which only seems to grow more and more human as the story progresses.