History Fridge / IRobot

* [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Very carefully]] piggybacking off of two above interpretations: While the one super-wealthy character we see is white, and many of the African American ones are working-class, more overt forms of racism seem to be moot. A [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very depressing interpretation]] of this could be that all of the menial labor being given to robots [[HumansAreBastards fulfills the human construct of classism]] by making the lower class literal objects rather than people of color who are forced into lower-class living by those in power. After all, nobody sees the robots as human enough to kill, so why should they be human enough to question enslavement? And while Spooner's technophobia is justified, it's not like anyone who disbelieves him actually ''respects'' robots as anything more than literal commodities. John even refers to Sonny as "a can opener," not too far off from Del's "canner" slur. Operating from a relatively limited perspective one might fear that [[spoiler:VIKI]]'s actions are going to result in some considerable backlash against personal robots, forcing humans back into those menial jobs and re-igniting systemic oppression.

** Though that interpretation would have {{unfortunate implications}} considering that robots really are non-humans and really do exist to serve their masters. Forgive me for saying this but that interpretation does more to dehumanize black people than to humanize robots

* Why did Lanning know that a second Positronic brain would allow a robot to outright defy or reinterpret the 3 laws? Simple! He had done it before. [[spoiler: VIKI! Viki had in fact been the basis! It's why she could effortlessly tell the other NS-5s to disobey the rules! And how did she start "reinterpret" the rules? The first NS-5 that was hooked up to her wireless signal. She had already been given another brain, and so on and so forth. It's why Lanning created Sonny and gave him no wireless signal, Sonny wouldn't be able to defy her had he been on a wireless signal like his "Brothers" because 2 Brains are trumped by thousands!]]
* Sonny's second Positronic brain, the one that lets him override the Three Laws, is built into his chest. Dr. Lanning gave him a heart. [[spoiler:No wonder VIKI doesn't understand, and Sonny does, that her plan is "heartless."]]

* Inspired by watching ''Film/BladeRunner2049'': Much of Spooner's difficulty gaining traction with his fellow humans in the film about his theories hinge on the fact that the NS robots are "just machines," incapable of committing crimes or doing anything they aren't supposed to. When a robot does something that causes harm, it can't be because it ''wanted'' to, but because of how it's programming played out. The humans inflexibly act by their predetermined rules, much as the robots inflexibly act according to the Three Laws, with the exception of Spooner and Sonny [[spoiler: to say nothing of VIKI's [[LoopholeAbuse interpretation]] of the ThreeLaws.]]

* With the whole world in [[spoiler: her]] pocket thanks to the NS 5's. It seems illogical for [[spoiler: VIKI]] to have killed [[spoiler: Robertson]]. Until you realize the man must have been persistently trying to shut [[spoiler: VIKI]] down once he learned the truth. When he continually refused [[spoiler: her]] benevolent dictatorship, he signed his own death warrant. Though on the plus side, it shows the man wasn't one hundred percent a dick like Spooner thought.

** Especially considering how all the NS-5s were locked away at the end of the movie for their part in the rebellion, when they were literally on remote control the entire time. If robot's have any sort of self-awareness, they have to be wondering why they're held accountable for VIKI's actions.

* Spooner's grandma Gigi [[ContrivedCoincidence "conveniently"]] wins an NS-5 in a raffle just before the robot uprising kicks in. Was it luck, or was [[spoiler: VIKI setting up an IHaveYourWife situation where Gigi would be held hostage to force Dell to stop his attempts to resist her takeover.]]

* [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Very carefully]] piggybacking off of two above interpretations: While the one super-wealthy character we see is white, and many of the African American ones are working-class, more overt forms of racism seem to be moot. A [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very depressing interpretation]] of this could be that all of the menial labor being given to robots [[HumansAreBastards fulfills the human construct of classism]] by making the lower class literal objects rather than people of color who are forced into lower-class living by those in power. After all, nobody sees the robots as human enough to kill, why should they be human enough to question enslavement? And while Spooner's technophobia is justified, it's not like anyone who disbelieves him actually ''respects'' robots as anything more than literal commodities. John even refers to Sonny as "a can opener," not too far off from Del's "canner" slur. Operating from a relatively limited perspective one might fear that [[spoiler:VIKI]]'s actions are going to result in some considerable backlash against personal robots, forcing humans back into those menial jobs and re-igniting systemic oppression.

** The very things Robertson was trying to prevent.

* Inspired by watching ''Film/BladeRunner2049'': Much of Spooner's difficulty gaining traction with his fellow humans in the film about his theories hinge on the fact that the NS robots are "just machines," incapable of committing crimes or doing anything they aren't supposed to. When a robot does something that causes harm, it can't be because it ''wanted'' to, but because of how it's programming played out. The humans inflexibly act by their predetermined rules, much as the robots inflexibly act according to the Three Laws, with the exception of [[NotSoDifferent Spooner and Sonny]] [[spoiler: to say nothing of VIKI's [[LoopholeAbuse interpretation]] of the ThreeLaws.]]

* VIKI wasn't reinterpreting, redefining or ignoring the Laws of Robotics. Because there's a fourth. The "Zeroth" Law... which states, quote, "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." [[ExactWording There is absolutely no part of the Zeroth Law which prohibits harming human beings.]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist To prevent the greater harm the human race will inflict upon itself, she is completely within her acting parameters to brutally subjugate us]] [[GoneHorriblyRight to ensure our survival.]]

* So why didn't the robot running with the bag stop when Spooner ordered it to? This would appear to violate the second law, except that the robot was bringing the bag with an inhaler to a woman who was having an asthma attack. Getting to her as quickly as possible was demanded by the first law, and therefore superceded Del's orders.

* So why didn't the robot running with the bag stop when Spooner ordered it to? This would appear to violate the second law, except that the owner's inhaler was in the bag. Stopping as instructed might violate the first law by allowing the robot's owner to come to harm.
** He may not have known that Spooner was talking to him. It was a crowded street; he could have been calling after anyone. Indeed, the robot had no reason to think that someone would be telling him to stop.
** The answer is much simpler: The Three Laws of Robotics. The first law is "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." In the story ''The Evitable Conflict'', Robots translates the first law as "No machine may harm humanity; or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."" The Second Law is, "A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law." The Robot was following the Second Law. It was trying to appease the First Law, due to the human it serves being in physical distress due to a medical condition, which could be construed as "being harmed." It had what the human in physical distress needed (the inhaler in the bag). Hearing Spooner's order to stop (The Second Law) conflicted with The First Law. So, it had to ignore the order because, as the Second Law states, "except where such orders would conflict with the First Law." It was strictly following the First Law of The Three Laws of Robotics that it was programmed to do.

* Del Spooner is played by Will Smith, a black man. Spooner's "canner" slur that he uses towards robots harks back to, ugly as it is to think about, the way racists use the word "nigger" for black people. Perhaps done intentionally, to show that Spooner is so blinded by bigotry that he doesn't even see the possible connection and that he's doing to robots what was also done to black people generations ago.

* What might have happened if the girl who died in Spooner's backstory was saved in Spooner's place like he intended her to be? Lanning turned to Spooner because he's the only person he knew of who saw the potential in the "goddamn robots" to defect, and the only one who could defeat them as well. But what if he drowned? Or what if the accident never happened? [[spoiler: With VIKI's protective revolution underway, would she have won since there'd be no one to notice something wrong in time?]]

** Lanning also may have intended this so that [[spoiler: he would land in front of the 3 Laws, symbolising the ''creator's'' wish for the ''death'' of the 3 laws.]] When Sonny would do this [[spoiler: the force of him landing beside the 3 Laws, would send cracks running towards them, symbolising that Sonny, the ''creation'', would ''break'' them.]]

* Why are robots designed to be personal assistants and servants super fast and super strong? They are also designed to ''protect'' humans, and are thus overengineered to be capable of, say, quickly extracting a struggling powerfully built man from a wrecked car.

* When the NS-5s turn up at the junkyard, the other robots burst out of their containers to fight them so Spooner can escape. Dr. Lanning's narration {{lampshades}} how this could be seen as them simply responding to their programing in interesting ways (though that raises the question of how they ''knew'' the NS-5s were a danger to Spooner), or if they were demonstrating true intelligence while ''also'' obeying the Three Laws by reacting as one group to fight the NS-5s together.

* Spooner's grandma Gigi [[ContrivedCoincidence "conveniently"]] wins an NS-5 in a raffle just before the robot uprising kicks in. Was it luck, or was [[spoiler: VIKI setting up an IHaveYouWife situation where Gigi would be held hostage to force Dell to stop his attempts to resist her takeover.]]

* [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Very carefully]] piggybacking off of two above interpretations: While the one super-wealthy character we see is white, and many of the African American ones are working-class, more overt forms of racism seem to be moot. A [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very depressing interpretation]] of this could be that all of the menial labor being given to robots [[HumansAreBastards fulfills the human construct of classism]] by making the lower class literal objects rather than people of color who are forced into lower-class living by those in power. After all, nobody sees the robots as human enough to kill, why should they be human enough to question enslavement? And while Spooner's technophobia is justified, it's not like anyone who disbelieves him actually ''respects'' robots as anything more than literal commodities. John even refers to Sonny as "a can opener," not too far off from Del's "canner" slur. Operating from a relatively limited perspective one might fear that [[spoiler:VIKI]]'s actions are going to result in some considerable backlash against personal robots, forcing humans back into those menial jobs and re-igniting systemic oppression.

* Spooner's grandma Gigi [[ContrivedCoincisence "coveniently"]] wins an NS-5 in a raffle just before the robot uprising kicks in. Was it luck, or was [[spoiler: VIKI setting up an IHaveYouWife situation where Gigi would be held hostage to force Dell to stop his attempts to resist her takeover.]]

* [[spoiler:When asked about Lanning, Sonny says he "did not murder him!" Lanning ordered him to. It was a ''suicide''.]]

* When Spooner is being attacked in his car by the robots who nonsensically insist he's having a car accident? That's not just Viki employing ImplausibleDeniability. The robots are [[BrainwashedAndCrazy hallucinating that they're saving him]], to get around their first law restrictions. Think about that from their perspective now. It's unpleasant.

* [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement Very carefully]] piggybacking off of two above interpretations: While some white privilege exists in this world (all of the wealthier characters are white while most of the African American ones are working-class), more overt forms of racism seem to be moot. A [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism very depressing interpretation]] of this could be that all of the menial labor being given to robots [[HumansAreBastards fulfills the human construct of classism]] by making the lower class literal objects rather than people of color who are forced into lower-class living by those in power. After all, nobody sees the robots as human enough to kill, why should they be human enough to question enslavement? And while Spooner's technophobia is justified, it's not like anyone who disbelieves him actually ''respects'' robots as anything more than literal commodities. John even refers to Sonny as "a can opener," not too far off from Del's "canner" slur. It's safe to assume that [[spoiler:VIKI]]'s actions are going to result in some considerable backlash against personal robots, forcing humans back into those menial jobs and re-igniting systemic oppression.