# Your opinions about "AI : Artificial Intelligence" (might contain SPOILERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 1, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085 "2005-08-01T04:19:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/101 "2005-08-04T03:37:12Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > **Your analogy is blatantly offensive.** As an analogy, I don’t think it’s offensive. Wasn’t that long ago you could buy one of those filthy, black beasts off a boat. They were were covered in fleas and feces, and it appeared they couldn’t even speak. But they were useful in the fields, even if you did have to beat them a lot. People would have laughed at you had you anthropomorphized them too much. In fact, some would consider that heretical. Flash forward to the world of AI, and even considering these things can think and feel is somewhat heretical. Just ask the people at the flesh fair who make sport of sawing these things in pieces, blowing them up, melting them with acid then crying foul when one of them cries out in pain and begs not to be killed. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hook)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/102 "2005-08-04T04:50:35Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Flash forward to the world of AI, and even considering these things can think and feel is somewhat heretical. Just ask the people at the flesh fair who make sport of sawing these things in pieces, blowing them up, melting them with acid then crying foul when one of them cries out in pain and begs not to be killed. Exactly, bearing the question: what constitutes human and who gets to decide? You quoted my post, but what I was referring to the moviegoers’ sentimental approach to David. Part of the movie, though, deals with the kind of attachments people make with inanimated objects (seemingly inanimated or not) and _that_ is a strong sentiment. Can anyone here honestly say they were never attached to an object? Very fond of it? The movie is somewhat of an exercise in what the next level would have to be for us to upgrade fondness to love. That’s why I liked this movie. Not only is it technically marvelous, beautifully acted, scored, and shot, but it raises many interesting questions. I forgot to answer the OP’s answer and I think that’s it, for me. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/103 "2005-08-04T05:52:43Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > As an analogy, I don’t think it’s offensive. Any time anyone implies or states directly that I am a racist, I am going to be offended. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/104 "2005-08-04T11:05:10Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > For one, there’s almost a palpable attempt to ensure that the film is made ridiculous by diminishing the protagonist (if you can call David that). It’s David or a robot; but instead we get the who gives a shit about a toaster approach. As if that alone should remove any empathy from the character. It has shades of, “He’s just a nigger! Why do we care what happens to him? Who makes a movie about that?” I interpret those statements as showing some ridicule for people who overly project emotions onto David, as in asking “why are you getting all choked up? It’s just a toaster”, rather than some kind of anti-robot bigotry analogous to other forms of bigotry, the linking of which is a downright Olympian leap of logic. I don’t even see the movie as being fundamentally _about_ David (after all, he/it never grows as a character or changes in any way), but rather the humans who foolishly thought the creation of a David-bot was a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/105 "2005-08-04T14:24:00Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > Any time anyone implies or states directly that I am a racist, I am going to be offended. Well, no one did that here, so you should be okay. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/106 "2005-08-04T16:07:40Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Well, no one did that here, so you should be okay. Oh, I’m pretty sure there are any number of things one could say your posts have “shades of”. Are they accurate? Does it matter? Evidently no matter what, it can’t possibly be construed as offensive. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/107 "2005-08-04T16:35:36Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Oh, I’m pretty sure there are any number of things one could say your posts have “shades of”. Are they accurate? Does it matter? Evidently no matter what, it can’t possibly be construed as offensive. Well, since by definition only I can imply or state something directly (which I did not do), I’m fairly comfortable with my statement. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/108 "2005-08-04T16:38:53Z")
Oh, and I should say that **levdrakon** got most of the point. The only thing I would add is that it is the attempt to project something similar on the “robot,” by dehumanizing it through use of perjoratives and related devices, that I find odd and interesting. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I don’t really care in this instance. I just find it interesting that part of the point of the film is to question humanity, and some viewers apparently are upset enough about that such that they need to short circuit the issue by making dehumanizing comments from the beginning that denies it could even be a question with respect to the “robot.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/109 "2005-08-04T16:43:17Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Oh, and I should say that **levdrakon** got most of the point. The only thing I would add is that it is the attempt to project something similar on the “robot,” by dehumanizing it through use of perjoratives and related devices, that I find odd and interesting. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I don’t really care in this instance. I just find it interesting that part of the point of the film is to question humanity, and some viewers apparently are upset enough about that such that they need to short circuit the issue by making dehumanizing comments from the beginning that denies it could even be a question with respect to the “robot.” It’s not a “robot” it **is** a robot. You can’t dehumanize a robot, it is inhuman. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/110 "2005-08-04T17:15:08Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > It’s not a “robot” it **is** a robot. You can’t dehumanize a robot, it is inhuman. That’s fine. We’re getting into a pissing match here that has nothing to really do with “opinions about AI,” so I’m off this subject. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/111 "2005-08-04T17:48:33Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I’m not of the impression that the people who didn’t like the movie somehow “hated” David For the record, I didn’t hate David. I hated the movie. You (lovers of AI) can talk all you want about how an interesting moral question is raised. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how interesting it is, the movie itself still sucked. This reminds me of when I saw Caligula years ago. I hated it. My friend tried to convince me that I actually liked it. “So it was gross and violent”, he said, “That’s realistic. Things were really like that back then.” “Really?”, I responded. “Ancient Rome was full of bad lighting, poor acting, and stilted dialog? Ancient Rome had three directors walk out due to disgust with the producer? Interesting. I guess they left that out of the history books.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/112 "2005-08-04T17:50:32Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > That’s fine. We’re getting into a pissing match here that has nothing to really do with “opinions about AI,” so I’m off this subject. Hey, you wanna go and slam my opinion, but when I point out that your’s stems from an incorrect premise, you leave? :dubious: :rolleyes: k, c ya ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/113 "2005-08-04T21:53:28Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > The only thing I would add is that it is the attempt to project something similar on the “robot,” by dehumanizing it At what point was the robot humanized in the first place? I find the notion rather disturbing, actually, because it implies that if a machine looks and sounds and acts sufficiently human (and the standard is apparantly quite a flexible one), we should accept it as such. Okay, assuming David is human, shouldn’t he bear some degree of responsibility for nearly drowning his brother, for smashing up another “David”, for stealing a police helicopter? The fact that David never matures despite all his experiences and disappointments suggests strongly to me that he is _not_ human, and merely a machine repeating its finite program. If “his love is real”, then the concept of “love” needs a major retooling. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085/114 "2005-08-04T22:04:39Z")
And for what it’s worth, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was in fact occasioned by an internal dispute over cinematography. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-opinions-about-ai-artificial-intelligence-might-contain-spoilers/315085.md?page=5)