Is it possible to be racist against AIs?

[Babale]

@Der_Trihs

A minor plot point in the novel The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump is that a company is experimenting with artificial souls for those born without them.

I knew I recognized the name of the book but not why - turns out it’s a Turtledove novel! I love his books, but mostly the alt history end. The World War series is my favorite.

He’s definitely not the best at prose or at character development, and his plots often follow real world history a little too closely, but his concepts and world building are some of my favorites. A bit like Asimov, I suppose.

I haven’t read much of his fantasy type books, but maybe I’ll check that one out.

@Atamasama

They originate from planet Cybertron, which is portrayed in the pilot episode of the original series and often referred to multiple times later; the planet has been overrun by the Decepticon antagonists, and the heroic Autobots are fleeing to avoid destruction, and chased across space. In the middle of combat, both groups crash to Earth in the distant past, and hibernate until awoken in modern times. Then they are given new forms by a powerful shipboard computer to be able to masquerade in human society (and then proceed to blow the crap out of each other very publicly in robot form, so I don’t know why they bothered, but whatever).

OK, so that explains why they transform into exact copies of specific models of Earth based vehicles. Makes sense, I suppose.

Were they already robots before this happened (the planet name Cybertron kind of implies it, but maybe it’s more like nominal predestination?)

@Atamasama

They are built, and they reproduce through being built. Early on in the original cartoon series, the Autobots find dinosaur bones, get curious about what they represent, and learn what dinosaurs are. They think the concept is cool and so they just build the “Dinobots”, which can transform between humanoid robot and dinosaur-shaped robot.

That’s basically how all Transformers reproduce; they are built as machines and infused with life as a “spark”. That is how the various media in the franchise draw a distinction between them and regular machines, even those with AI.

Were they being built like this when they all lived on Cybertron? Or did they have to become robotic after they left?

And, assuming they were already robots on Cybertron, were they like… Robots who formed around this AllSpark that already existed? Or is it implied (or outright stated) that they were originally created by an earlier race of biological beings?

@Atamasama

For example, the computer that rebuilt the Transformers early in the cartoon series is called “Teletraan I”, and was a powerful semi-sentient computer built into the Autobots ship (which they later use for a base). It is a machine with some form of intelligence, but lacking a spark it is treated as a tool, not as a person.

OK, I see why you compared the Spark to a Soul, now. So even though this computer was capable of bringing them to Earth and making the decision to reform them so they can transform into Earth cars, they view it as a thing and not a person.