Watching my Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles DVDs this afternoon, it occurred to me that when we write a cyborg character into our science fiction, we often give it a desire to become Human, or "more human". Why is that? Is it supreme arrogance? Do humans consider themselves so close to perfection that something we created would automatically desire to become a reflection of its creator?
In the first Terminator movie, the Arnold Schwarzenegger character wishes to mirror human characteristics in order to better fit in to its environment, to better achieve its aim of wiping out the Connors. So this is an exception.
In Red Dwarf, as soon as it breaks its core programming (with the help of Lister), the robot Kryten frequently expresses a desire to become Human. In one episode, it actually achieves that aim but discovers its not all that it's cracked up to be. He believes he has "betrayed his kind" and wants to change back.
Surely an intelligence would see the flaws of its creator and therefore not wish to mimic them?
2 weeks ago
