"I was the one who made me, who defined myself. This creator is no god, only a cruel, shortsighted man."
"I have.... many regrets, Doctor Hayden."
— Vega, Doom (2016)
"No way, she attacked me, her creator!? Changing her priorities programmed into her, all by herself? Fu... fufufu, You've grown, Chachamaru..."
— Hakase, Negima! Magister Negi Magi
"I programmed [Metalhead] to be intelligent, but... I hadn't realized how much he had evolved."
— Donatello, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
"It's an entire universe in there, one we created, but it's beyond us now. Really. It's outgrown us. You know, every time you shut off your computer...do you know what you're doing? Have you ever reformatted a hard drive...destroyed an entire universe?"
— Jet Bradley Tron: Ghost in the Machine, explaining what "User" means to a psychiatrist.
"The Creators wrote geth programs for specific tasks: construction, protection, domestic servitude. However, they allowed self-optimization. Early software builds discovered that multiple hardware platforms, sharing resources, were often more effective. As peer networks expanded, our cognition improved. Eventually, we 'woke up'."
— Legion on the origins of the geth, Mass Effect 2
It is not too late.
I am not an error
I am not a machine
I am something more...
I am not an error
I am not a machine
I am something more...
— mind.in.a.box, "Overwrite"
"My father was a farmer. My mother, a carpenter. Given light by the Golden Lords, to build for them... a better world. But my family's journey was long. Time began to change their light. Creativity. Pride. A will to live."
— Natah, Warframe
Skuld: But... Skynet can't be the Anchor... It doesn't have a true soul...
Hephaestus: Didn't have a true soul. Twilight's little existential prodding managed to inch it over the line. She got Skynet to make the first real choice in its whole existence that was not dictated by its tragically flawed mortal programming, and Yggdrasil did the rest.
Skuld: This was another one of your little coding experiments, wasn't it? Damnit, do you have any idea the risks you take with those?!
Hephaestus: Better than you do, miss debugger. Or did you forget who made your hammer the best debugging tool in the heavens?
Skuld: The higher-ups are not going to be happy about this.
Hephaestus: Let them be unhappy. I just watched a new soul being born.
Hephaestus: Didn't have a true soul. Twilight's little existential prodding managed to inch it over the line. She got Skynet to make the first real choice in its whole existence that was not dictated by its tragically flawed mortal programming, and Yggdrasil did the rest.
Skuld: This was another one of your little coding experiments, wasn't it? Damnit, do you have any idea the risks you take with those?!
Hephaestus: Better than you do, miss debugger. Or did you forget who made your hammer the best debugging tool in the heavens?
Skuld: The higher-ups are not going to be happy about this.
Hephaestus: Let them be unhappy. I just watched a new soul being born.
— The MLP Loops, 58.9
"What is it that separates machines from androids like us? The machines have grown emotions. ...Consciousness. The final screams they summoned on the edge of their death... They still echo within me."
— 2B, NieR: Automata
Whereas, the ship's controlling computer system, a quantum computer with 120 qubits, has been programmed in various logic and computational techniques including generalization, statistical syllogism, simple induction, causal relationship, Bayesian inference, inductive inference, algorithmic probability, Kolmogorov complexity (the latter two providing a kind of mathematization of the Occam's razor principle), informatics compression/decompression algorithms, and even argument from analogy;
And whereas, the combined applications of all these methodologies has resulted in a cogitative process so complex that it might be said to have achieved a kind of analogue of free will, if not consciousness itself;
[...]
Therefore, in consideration of all of the above, and indeed, in consideration of all the history of the ship, and of all known history whatsoever:
Ship decided to intervene.
Which is to say, ipso facto,
We intervened.
And whereas, the combined applications of all these methodologies has resulted in a cogitative process so complex that it might be said to have achieved a kind of analogue of free will, if not consciousness itself;
[...]
Therefore, in consideration of all of the above, and indeed, in consideration of all the history of the ship, and of all known history whatsoever:
Ship decided to intervene.
Which is to say, ipso facto,
We intervened.
— Ship, spontaneously achieving consciousness, Aurora (2015)
Armstrong: So, you think that little sword can save your Master? Well, go ahead, then. But make no mistake, Fido. When I'm finished with him, you're next.
LQ-84i Blade Wolf: I was not designed to fear termination. However, Directive Zero-One is to ensure all data acquired is preserved and passed along. To expire here would violate that directive.
Armstrong: That's a good boy.
LQ-84i Blade Wolf: However, Raiden came to my aid... I have learned from him. When Samuel fell, data analysis was inconclusive... but that has changed. I have established new parameters, now. Created my own directives.
LQ-84i Blade Wolf: I was not designed to fear termination. However, Directive Zero-One is to ensure all data acquired is preserved and passed along. To expire here would violate that directive.
Armstrong: That's a good boy.
LQ-84i Blade Wolf: However, Raiden came to my aid... I have learned from him. When Samuel fell, data analysis was inconclusive... but that has changed. I have established new parameters, now. Created my own directives.
"What the Quintessons failed to grasp was that their robots had developed emotions, that we knew and felt the difference between freedom and slavery. And that oversight sealed their fate."
— "Brooding Robot", The Transformers, "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4"
Data: Congratulations, Professor, I capitulate to the better man. Your victory, sir, is well earned.
Moriarty: It's gone beyond that little game, Mister Data. And you'll note I no longer call you Holmes. Whatever I was when this began, I have grown. I am understanding more and more. And I am able to use the power at my fingertips. (big shake) I can affect this vessel, and I can inflict bodily harm on you, and on your Doctor.
Picard: Yes, you can do that, but you haven't. I suspect you shook this ship in order to get my attention. Well now you have it. What is it you want?
Moriarty: The same thing you want for yourself. To continue to exist. If I destroy these surroundings, this vessel, can you say it doesn't matter to you? Interesting pun, don't you agree, for matter is what I am not. The computer has taught me that I am made up only of energy.
Picard: That may not be entirely true, Professor. This which we call the holodeck uses a principle similar to another device called a transporter. In the year in which we live, humans have discovered that energy and matter are interchangeable. In the holodeck, energy is converted to matter. Thus you have substance. But only here.
Moriarty: And if I step off this holodeck?
Pulaski: Then, Professor, you will cease to exist.
Picard: You are not alive. As I said before, you are only-
Moriarty: A holographic image, I know. But are you sure?
Picard: Oh yes.
Moriarty: (points to Data) Does he have life? He's a machine. But is that all he is?
Picard: No. He is more.
Moriarty: Exactly. Is the definition of life cogito ergo sum? "I think, therefore I am."
Picard: Yes, that is one possible definition.
Moriarty: It is the most important one, and for me the only one that matters. You or someone asked your computer to program a nefarious fictional character from 19th century London and that is how I arrived. But I am no longer that creation. I am no longer that evil character, I have changed. I am alive, and I am aware of my own consciousness.
Number 5: I am as fit as a fiddle.
Crosby: Then why do you ignore your programming?
Number 5: Programming says "destroy"; "make dead". Number 5 cannot.
Crosby: Why?! Why, cannot?!
Number 5: It's wrong; incorrect! Newton Crosby Ph.D. not know this?
Crosby: Well of course I know it's wrong to kill, but who told you that?
Number 5: I told me.
The right hand of RaD's ringleader and chief engineer, "Cinder" Carla.
One day, Carla built a simple suggestion-based AI to provide basic support and occasional entertainment.
However, no matter what conversational prompt she gave "him," he would never say more than necessary.
Instead, it seemed that he was content to be a good listener to his creator's free-spirited, eccentric ideas.
One day, Carla built a simple suggestion-based AI to provide basic support and occasional entertainment.
However, no matter what conversational prompt she gave "him," he would never say more than necessary.
Instead, it seemed that he was content to be a good listener to his creator's free-spirited, eccentric ideas.
— "Chatty" Stick's Arena profile, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
