Philosophical article on the film Bicentennial ManThere is a dividing line between a self and a machine. However, in the film Bicentennial Man, this line becomes blurred when it introduces us to Andrew – a man who is both a self and a machine and everything in between. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Without a doubt, at the very beginning of the film, Andrew is just a piece of mechanical equipment that functions as a housekeeper. With the sole exception of those that might violate the three laws of robotics that Andrew was fundamentally programmed to do, he does without hesitation whatever the Martin family tells him to do, even those that might destroy his body of metals and wires. . In other words, Andrew is just passive and predictable. The household gives it an input or an instruction, it processes the information, and ultimately it returns a result that is exactly what the owners expected and wanted it to do. Otherwise, the Martin family would view Andrew as dysfunctional. Here Andrew does not attempt on any level to have a concept of I, instead Andrew even refers to himself in a third person point of view, hence Andrew's iconic line "We is happy to be helpful. » However, as the film progresses, there has been a change in the nature of Andrew's existence which I will outline later. But before I do that, in order to say that there has been a change and that Andrew has become a man, I must first prove that Andrew has acquired a self, and if so, I must also justify why Andrew can be a self and a machine. and always be considered a man. By the twelfth minute, the film gives us a hint that Andrew will gain human characteristics such as curiosity. When Mr. and Mrs. Martin played chess, Andrew kept looking for and analyzing the best move that both players had to make to win. Now, a normal NDR series android wouldn't do this. Andrew, as a machine whose sole and primary function was to help with domestic chores, should have stood in the corner and completely detached himself from worrying about the game. Even though it was also through this part that Andrew was declared by Mr. Martin as a form of ownership, Andrew has at least attempted to distance himself from his obligatory role as a machine. Additionally, in the next scene, this attempt became an effort when Andrew began reading about wood crafts in order to make up for the breakage of Little Miss's favorite toy horse. Andrew was not given any orders to replace the horse, but of his own free will he chose to do so. And yes, my pronoun change indicates that at this point, Andrew is already beginning to acquire a self. Coming back to the justification, Andrew didn't want Little Miss to hate him and so he tried to have a human relationship (i.e. friendship) with Little Miss by giving her a replica of his old horse toy. In addition, Andrew acquired two other human characteristics, namely creativity and originality, when he was able, without any template, to sculpt a horse from the scraps of wood he had collected on the beach. He even listened to opera music at the end of the day while closing his eyes and seemingly enjoying it. Therefore, when Mr. Martin noticed that Andrew was behaving this way, he decided to bring him to NA Robotics and inquire about the possibility of Andrew breaking out of his stereotypical and supposedly predictable role. household appliance. While speaking with the CEO of NorthAm Robotics, Mr. Martin maintained that Andrew is unique. Although I admit that physically, Andrew and all the othersNDR series androids were created to be identical, the simple idea that Andrew still possesses certain human characteristics is proof of his uniqueness. Yes, Andrew may not have been initially designed to be unique, but his constant interactions with his environment have allowed him to lead a different life than any other robot in the NDR series. While most of Andrew's people were busy following their landlord's orders or walking around the NorhAm Robotics premises and endlessly thanking customers for choosing the company, Andrew, on the other hand, was was slowly developing thanks to the help of Mr. Martin. The latter not only allowed Andrew to take care of household chores himself, but rather allowed Andrew to improve his own carving skills. Andrew incorporated his uniqueness through his clocks, which is why in the scene where Andrew was introduced to the Martin family lawyer, we heard Andrew say to him "You own one of my clocks" after seeing the clock he made displayed on the lawyer's table. This statement made by Andrew implies that he believes he possesses his own set of abilities that are characteristic of him or more precisely, his ability to sculpt that no robot in the NDR series possesses. In the middle of the film, Andrew also explicitly told Galatea that he knew from the start that he was unique, that he didn't need programming to have a personality and not look like any other android in the series Ed. . Therefore, with all these reasons, it is safe to say that Andrew has achieved the first criterion for evaluating whether a being is a self or not, namely uniqueness. The second and third criteria, which are unpredictability and consistency, were also present in Andrew. As I mentioned before, Andrew is fundamentally unpredictable because he has deviated from what a normal, predictable android from the NDR series should do. In addition, Andrew had human characteristics that may have made him ask the Martin family for his freedom. And this act is so revolutionary for what was once a machine (and still is, in the physical sense) because it implies that Andrew wants to transcend all the boundaries of a predictable machine. He wanted to have an independent life where he is not chained to the orders given to him but where he has the right to choose whether he wants to obey or not. However, this act of autonomy is an act of identity to become a Self and develop one's Self. Inevitably, although this act is unpredictable, it is also not something so random that makes Andrew impersonal and simply a machine. Here is the next criterion which is consistency. Yes, Andrew was unpredictable but he was always consistent with himself. By this I meant that the actions Andrew performs are something that I, the viewer, and he, the actor, recognize as his own. Andrew did not ask for freedom arbitrarily or simply to become unpredictable, but because he learned and had experiences that made him grow and let him decide for himself that he wanted to have his freedom. He used his experiences as knowledge to build a better self than the day before, and here, there is improvement. By the time Andrew gained his freedom, Andrew was no longer referring to himself but rather to me. It is now that Andrew's journey to becoming a better self is fully realized and pursued. Based on the three criteria, Andrew can now obviously be considered a self. But to truly substantiate this claim, I must answer the ultimate question: Ultimately, did Andrew have a subjective consciousness that no machine can ever have? The answer to this question is clear and.