Or more to the point, is there something inherent about droids that makes them more than just machines?
(Mild spoilers for Rogue One and Solo follow, in case anyone hasn’t seen them yet.)
Back in 1977, we were introduced to two lovable robots with distinctive personalities. At subsequent points in the original trilogy, we were made to fear for their safety as if they were human characters.
More recently, we’ve seen two droids, K-2S0 and L3-37, who essentially “died” and were mourned by their human compatriots. (I get that L3 was uploaded into the Falcon, but even that seemed like a last-ditch effort to save her “life.”)
Even now in the real world, we can program a bit of personality into our AI devices. This will undoubtedly get more sophisticated with time. Yet, we recognize that they are still just devices. In the Star Wars universe, they are often treated as more than that.
So are droids actually instilled with some sort of “life force” (for lack of a better term)? If they cease to function, can they not simply be rebuilt or rebooted, or their hard drives inserted into a new mechanical body? Or are they “dead” for good?
I have seen all of the Star Wars films, but am unfamiliar with most of the extended canon material. Has this question been officially addressed anywhere?
The general consensus in Star Wars canon is that, while they are considered to be artificial intelligence, droids aren’t considered to be life forms. (They aren’t present as “life” in the Force, for one thing.)
Most of the droids we see in the movies have gone far, far longer without a reset / memory wipe than seems to be the norm in the SW galaxy. One of the apparent side effects of extended time without a reset is that a droid’s personality will grow and become more complex.
L3-37, in Solo, was clearly a “droids’ rights” activist, but the vast majority of beings in the galaxy see droids as property and tools, not as beings.
Also, the Jedi are proscribed from using the Force to directly injure or kill other life forms (doing so is pretty clearly seen as using the Dark Side of the Force). As evidenced by the Jedi using the Force to mow down battle droids in the Prequels, even the Jedi don’t see droids as life.
No, no more than Luke’s X-wing or Jabba’s sailbarge are. Droids aren’t truly sentient beings like Transformers made by a “creator” being. 3po may say “thank the maker” but clearly he meant little orphan Ani, not a supreme life spring.
While Droids aren’t living beings, this is entirely wrong.
Droids are clearly sapient, even if some of them are dumb as a box of rocks (the battle droids from the prequels).
Hell, the named ones (especially R2, BB8, Chopper, and L3) often show more signs of independent existence than the organics around them. While the meat-folk are tossed about by fate and prophecy, the Droids are not only acting within their programming, but expanding it.
What Kamino said. Droids aren’t alive in any biological sense (I’m sure someone with more geek-cred than I will point out some droid from some book, comic, or video game that had biological components in it somewhere, for some reason).
But I would argue that many of them are people, unique sapient beings/entities, and deserving of all the rights and privileges of any organic being.
Droids are clearly, unquestionably sentient and, toe be more correct, they are sapient. Some are, anyway, like C3PO. I am amazed there’s any doubt about that; they are meant to be truly conscious characters that the audience cares about.
When it’s said they’re not life forms, that’s a reference to the fact they are not carbon based creatures with cells and DNA. But they are aware and conscious - or, again, the most advanced ones are.
As far as having the same voices and / or personalities as the “heroic” droids, like Artoo or Threepio, I don’t think so.
Most of the other droids who appeared in the films (like other astromech droids) were only momentarily pictured, and never had lines, so we have no real idea as to their personalities.
Two exceptions which come to mind, as far as actual appearances and lines, were two other protocol droids, who looked like silver versions of Threepio:
In The Empire Strikes Back, there’s a protocol droid on Cloud City who says “E chu ta!” to Threepio – based on Threepio’s reaction, this was either insulting or obscene. (It’s since been retconned that he was speaking in Huttese, but the exact meaning of the phrase is still unrevealed.)
In The Phantom Menace, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan first arrive on the Trade Federation ship, they’re greeted by a protocol droid, TC-14, which speaks with a female voice.
In the prequels, there are a huge number of battle droids, all of whom do speak with the same voice.
We rarely meet Droids other than the main heroes who aren’t doing their jobs, and therefor having an opportunity to show off much of their personality. Frex: The Battle Droids are more or less interchangable, but so are the Imperial-era Storm Troopers, so that’s probably due to playing the role of generic soldier.
When we do, they’re generally either one-offs, like IG-88, where we don’t see others of their model, or astromechs of various models (including a couple other R2 units). The latter tend to have more personality than would normally be expected from faceless robots who can’t speak Basic.
In the Star Wars universe, life is cheap. Slavery, assassins and bounty hunters, organized (and deadly) crime seem to often pass unremarked upon. Only weapons of mass destruction and genocide seem to merit a cocked eyebrow.
It’s not surprising to me that droids are not usually viewed as “real” life forms deserving of rights. They get periodic memory wipes to prevent them from going insane, from the point of view of their owners.
According to wikipedia, life is, and I quote:* “Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have died), or because they never had such functions and are classified as inanimate.”*
So, since “signalling” is defined as “reacting to the environment”, which androids do, and they can indeed plug themselves to an energy source, and are obviously capable of movement, meaning animate… the one hurdle would be the definition of “biological processes.”
Again, according to wikipedia: “Biological processes are made up of many chemical reactions or other events that are involved in the persistence and transformation of life forms”. There are chemical reactions in a droid’s body, I guess.
So it works for me. It says nowhere it needs to be carbon-based.
True enough, but it’s pretty clear to me that, regardless of whether the viewers / fans might view characters like Artoo or BB-8 as being every bit as “alive” as any of the carbon-based characters in the films, if we look at how droids are treated in-universe, most people do not view droids as being a form of life (sentient or otherwise).
I don’t think that was the question on the OP, however…
The Star Wars universe is pretty brutal and uncaring for everyone, droid or not. Anakin was a slave, and as such he had the same lack of rights than any robot unit.
As I linked to in post #2, you don’t have to go to EU sources–it is right up there in the first few minutes of the first movie–the escape pod containing R2-D2 and C-3PO had “no life-forms aboard.” You can’t get more canon than that.
“So are droids actually instilled with some sort of “life force” (for lack of a better term)?”
There’s absolutely a term for that in the Star Wars universe: The Force. Every living thing in Star Wars is part of the Force. And, as I noted previously, in-universe canon is that droids don’t have the Force. As per Wookieepedia:
“Because they were not technically alive, droids were “dead” to the Force, an energy field that connected all living things in the galaxy.”
Edit: plus, the quote to which Darren Garrison refers.
I think that’s a matter of semantics, but the OP should feel free to weigh back in here, if he / she cares to.
By definition in Star Wars, living creatures are living creatures because they generate the Force. Artificial constructs, such as droids, do not do so.
Going back to Wookieepedia, this time on The Force:
They get periodic memory wipes to prevent them from going insane, from the point of view of their owners.