Lifestyle
Anybody
remember the movie, A.I: Artificial
Intelligence? It came out in 2001. Basically, it’s a story
about David, a robotic prototype created by
Cybertronics. He (or it) was designed to resemble a
human boy and created to “love” its human owners.
Cybertronics then decided to test David on one of its
employees: Henry Swinton, and his wife Monica. At this
point in the movie, we find out that the Swintons' son,
Martin, is in a deep coma due to a rare disease, so David
will serve as a temporary “son” to the Swintons.
Initially, Monica is afraid of David and does not like
him. But as time passes, Monica learns to like David and
even gives him Martin’s old robotic teddy bear. Finally,
Monica activates David’s protocol that will permanently
program him to “love” Monica. As soon as this is done, however, Henry calls with the news that Martin is now
cured and will be coming home with him.
This homecoming causes a stir between David and Martin, and soon enough, they begin to battle each other for
their parents’ affection. Of course, since David is not their real son and is simply an android, Henry and Monica are
forced to get rid of David. Henry tells Monica to return David to Cybertronics where he will be destroyed. But
Monica can’t bring herself to do this, so she simply leaves him in a forest with Teddy.
And here is where this movie begins to look a lot like Pinocchio. David attempts to look for the Blue Fairy he
heard about in The Adventures of Pinocchio, so the Fairy can turn him into a real boy. Long story short, David
eventually finds the Blue Fairy. Sadly, it turns out that the Fairy is simply a statue, deeply submerged in what used to
be a tourist attraction at Coney Island. But David does not realize this, so he repeatedly asks the statue to turn him
into a real boy until his internal power supply drains away.
Can Machines Love?
By Jin Do Lee
Two thousand years later, we see that the humans are now extinct and have been replaced by alien-like,
hyper-intelligent robotic beings. They uncover David from thousands of feet of ice and discover that he is one of the
first prototypes that had direct contact with the humans. After learning about David’s past, the hyper-intelligent
beings tell David that it is impossible to make him into a real human being. But because David kept on insisting, the
intelligent beings create a clone of Monica, so that David will at least be able to see her again.
The next morning, we see Monica and David spending the happiest time of their lives. As the day comes to an end,
Monica goes to sleep. David then climbs into bed with her, and for the first time in history, David himself goes to
sleep.
So, back to the question, “Can machines love?” Simply put: nope. Machines cannot love. The “emotions” that the
robots portray exists only because we programmed them. Outside a bunch of lines of code, love means nothing to
a robot like David. David merely acted like that because he was programmed to. Machines do not have the intricate
chemicals that incite the feeling of love. Machines do not get that “butterfly in your stomach” feeling when they see
their crushes. Machines can’t even have crushes in the first place. Sure, they can be programmed to be like us, but
would it be real?
However, there is this one lesson that we can learn from these robots. If we imagine David or even watch
currently developing androids “loving” someone, we can observe that they will forever “love” whoever they are
programmed to love. In other words, they “love” unconditionally.
Now, keep that in mind and think of the next question: When was the last time you genuinely, loved your mother?
Your father? Your siblings? Your girlfriends/boyfriends? Or even more importantly, when was the last time you
returned God’s unconditional agape love?
I think that this was the lesson that A.I: Artificial Intelligence was trying to teach us all along. If robots with mere lines
of code can “love” someone faithfully and unconditionally, why shouldn’t we humans, who are more than capable
of actually loving someone, be able to do the same, if not more?
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