The Robots in Interstellar

I saw Interstellar this past week. I really enjoyed the brick shaped robots, TARS and CASE.  In form they reminded me of HAL, but definitely not in function.  If you have not seen Interstellar these robots were basically large walls with screens on them.  They used what looked like magnets to hold themselves together and this allowed them to change into many different shapes.  The robots proved to be very useful and very loyal.  The robots would always do what they were told. There was even a point in the movie where the robot said it didn’t have to be asked to do anything, it could be told to do something and it would have to do it.  This fact was strange compared to the way the robots were treated.  The robots were treated as people and were even referred to by humans as “he,” implying that the robots themselves are people. The robots even had unique personalities, but were still treated as tools. So the question is “when is robot really a person and if so how should they be treated?”

In the game Mass Effect there was an uprising of robot slaves against this creator.  The question that started it all was “does this unit have a soul?” In other words have we created an AI so intelligent that it is actually as sophisticated as the human consciousness?  I believe it is theoretically possible to create a machine that fully simulates the human brain and thus leading to the machine having a “soul.”

The humans in Interstellar constantly interacted with the robots in very personal way.  It even seemed that the humans had formed friendships with the robots through the course of the movie.  Humans would casually converse with robots. This is very odd given the fact that humans were able to reprogram the personalities of the robots at will.  The humans could adjust various settings of the robots such as humor or honesty, and this would effectively change how the robot would act.  In a healthy human to human relationship one party couldn’t just change the personality of the person at a whim. I believe that it was unethical to treat the robots as humans at times and machines at others.  I believe the humans in Interstellar have not ever posed the question from Mass Effect.  They treat the robots as people only when it is convenient to them.

Furthermore the robots would have to obey the humans for any request.  This would include endangering themselves in order to save humans.  The robots were treated as second-rate citizens. In the Interstellar world the society has not evolved enough to treat robots as humans.  This is surprising because the movie is set multiple generations in the future and these questions are already being posed today. It is just odd that the humans at times decide the robots are worthy of human rights and other times they decide that they do not deserve any of this.