Transformers

I realized in class today that a lot of our considerations of robots and/versus humans posited a divide in that robots were not human and therefore incapable of xyz. But in the movie Transformers, the robots occupy this strange space between what we consider the essential differences between robots and humans. They can grow, reproduce, learn, and die, just like humans. None of the robots we’ve talked about can do all of that, some, but not all. I firmly believe that robots cannot be humans, in the same sense that dogs cannot be cats. That doesn’t mean that they are inferior to humans, it just means that they aren’t the same. And I do think robots that can learn and feel are entitled to the same rights as humans because those rights are based on what had been the uniquely human capability to think and feel that these robots now have. But in Transformers, because the robots occupy this odd space between the two, they’re not really robots at all. They’re humanoid creatures; inorganic humans, I suppose, would be an appropriate term.