Downtown Khazan: Siriel's Temporary Edition

[Farealmer]

How does CBR feel about the old story element of robots wanting to become human?

[FarBeyondC]

How does CBR feel about the old story element of robots wanting to become human?

I'm afraid I do not speak for CBR.

Personally, it totally depends on why they want to become human- some reasons are better (or worse) than others, and it's the particular reason that will make or break the story.

[Omegalith]

I'm afraid I do not speak for CBR.

Personally, it totally depends on why they want to become human- some reasons are better (or worse) than others, and it's the particular reason that will make or break the story.

Yeah. "I want to be Human because I seem to think Humans are better than me even though I'm immortal, modular, incredibly strong and durable and have an eidetic memory backed by immense processing power." doesn't really cut it.

[Sharkerbob]

How does CBR feel about the old story element of robots wanting to become human?

Hate it, personally. It only makes sense and is acceptable to me in rare cases, and by that I mean, it has to genuinely make sense from a character standpoint. Data, for example, was meant to emulate humanity as part of his design, so becoming a human makes sense in that it is an extension of his foremost desire for the sake of better understanding what he emulates. Usually, though, its born from the often clumsily handled sentiment that "humans are better than everyone else" that comes off as the writer trying to gloss over the genuine terror humanity has that maybe they aren't a special little snowflake like they keep telling themselves.

See any number of stories where other non-human things envy humans despite having all the advantages of humans, plus numerous powers many humans would kill to have for themselves.

Hell, Futurama especially comes to mind as being stand out by having a world where humans and robots actually co-exist peacefully without either having a hang up over the other.

[Sharpandpointies]

Well, eventually the nerves get too fried to feel anything, I would imagine.

After a certain point there's going to be nerve overload.

Yes, but I didn't think you were in that line of work.

Though now that I think about it, I have no idea what line of work you're actually in, so never mind. <_<

Environmental research, in a lab. :) Chemistry based.

[Beadle]

My old Chemistry textbooks are all sat on a bookshelf at my parents' house.

I'm not using my degree in any capacity whatsoever, so I can't have them at work, and we don't have the space at home. I wish we COULD fit them in, but we really can't.

(Partly so I could see if I still remember much of it.)

[Omegalith]

Hell, Futurama especially comes to mind as being stand out by having a world where humans and robots actually co-exist peacefully without either having a hang up over the other.

And then in the What-If story where Bender becomes a Human, he kills himself as a bloated mess via heart attack in about a week due to not making any changes to his lifestyle.

Another good example of non-humans being given human traits they have zero use for is Zande from Final Fantasy 3: Noah was a human so skilled at magic that three immortals came to him to become his apprentices. On his deathbed he gave Dorga his mastery over magic, Une his mastery over dreams, and to Zande he granted "the greatest gift of all"... Mortality.

...And then Zande flipped the fuck out and tried to drown the world in darkness in a vain attempt to regain what he had lost, because duh.

[Ghost]

How does CBR feel about the old story element of robots wanting to become human?

I prefer "as good as human", really.

Eisen, my SHR3 character, never wanted to become an actual human - she has a pretty strong sense of identity and accepts that she will always be a machine. What she wants, rather, is to become emotionally and socially equal to humans.

[Siriel]

Reading through the final arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!, it occurs to me that Bakura is kind of terrible at this "winning" thing.

I mean, he timestops most of his opponents, has the Pharaoh ready to give up and instead of attacking and winning he...tells the Pharaoh how he could get out of this.

And I don't mean *accidentally lets it slip while in a monologue* he flat-out goes "Well, I could attack and kill you now, but if you look over there you'll see that you still have some options".

[Ghost]

See any number of stories where other non-human things envy humans despite having all the advantages of humans, plus numerous powers many humans would kill to have for themselves.

"We are vampires, but we have non of the traditional vampire weaknesses and all the awesome powers. Plus, we are amazingly pretty."
"Where do I sign up?"
"Oh, you don't want this. You'll have to, you know, live forever and stuff. Honestly, I wish I could be an ordinary ugly, weak human and die after less than a century. That would be awesome."

Also:

[Omegalith]

"We are vampires, but we have non of the traditional vampire weaknesses and all the awesome powers. Plus, we are amazingly pretty."
"Where do I sign up?"
"Oh, you don't want this. You'll have to, you know, live forever and stuff. Honestly, if I could be a ordinary ugly, weak human and die after less than a century. That would be awesome."

Hell, even with the weaknesses a lot of Vampire types seem like a sweet deal. It's pretty much just the ones with extreme psychology changes or relatively weak powers that don't make up for the limitations that suck.

Panzuriel forbid that Immortality and Superpowers have a few price tags attached.

[FarBeyondC]

Funny enough, living forever is one of the few things I actually fear.

So I'd probably decline any powers that came with it.

[Farealmer]

What sounds better, a Silver Surfer like being made of pure energy or a star elemental that can shift into any of the forms stars take during their lifecycles at will?

[Omegalith]

Funny enough, living forever is one of the few things I actually fear.

So I'd probably decline any powers that came with it.

You can always kill yourself after seven centuries or so, once all the novelty of bothering to exist wears off. An expanded lifespan you don't have a hard cap on is a pretty neat thing to have.

[Ghost]

Hell, even with the weaknesses a lot of Vampire types seem like a sweet deal. It's pretty much just the ones with extreme psychology changes or relatively weak powers that don't make up for the limitations that suck.

I dunno. I would start seriously hesitating at "must prey on humans" and "sunlight kills you", honestly. Then there's more esoteric stuff like inability to cross running water, crippling OCD, phobia of holy imagery, having no reflection... it all kinda adds up to a pretty bad time.