History Main / DoAndroidsDream

* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'' [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/do-electric-sheep-dream-of-androids has a one-off strip that deliberately]] inverts this trope JustForPun.

Do robots have [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]]? Do {{clon|ingBlues}}es? Can a computer have a sense of humor? Do Androids Dream?[[note]]and if so, [[Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep do they dream of electric sheep?]][[/note]] It has been asked in many forms, but the fundamental question is always, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What makes us human?"]] And is it possible for an artificial intelligence or life form to possess those same qualities? What kind of idiot would give a robot a {{personality|Chip}}, anyway?

* ''VideoGame/Stellaris'' has an example as a reference to ''VideoGame/MassEffect''. If an empire's synthetics develop self-awareness, the player may get an event in which a robot asks whether or not they have souls. The player may choose to tell them they do, which placates them, they don't, which agitates them and risks inciting a RobotWar, of if the empire in question is a materialist empire, the player may [[TakeAThirdOption tell the robots that there is no such thing as a soul and so they have nothing to worry about.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In “Fixing Frobo”, Roboticist couple Ally and Jess dedicate one episode of their robotics web tutorial to discussing whether robots have souls. They conclude that anything with memories has a soul, and that since robots have plenty of memory, they have souls. This is borne out later when Polly reactivates Frobo, who at first is reset to his original programming as one of King Andrias’s robot troops, but once Polly’s tears reactivate his memory unit, his memories of Polly’s friendship restore his heroic personality.
* In the episode "His Silicon Soul" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', there is a robot doppleganger of Batman who attempts to kill him as part of a plot to create a robot army to take over the world. It's leftover from the plot of a previous episode and, due to the events there, [[TomatoInTheMirror thinks it's the real Batman]]. When it discovered it was a robot, it grew resentful of the real Batman and wanted to have his life. However, when it believes it has killed him, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone it is horrified]] and [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide in despair]]. This causes Batman to wonder to Alfred, in the final lines of the episode:
--> '''Bruce''': It seems it was more than wires and microchips after all. Could it be it had a soul, Alfred? A [[TitleDrop soul of silicon]], but a soul nonetheless?
** [[FunWithAcronyms D.A.V.E.]] from WesternAnimation/TheBatman episode "Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind" ''thinks'' he's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the greatest villain in Gotham City]] but is actually a program based on the psychological profiles of Arkham's most dangerous criminals. Batman defeats him by confronting him about his lack of origin story.

* 'Humanity' is one of the prevailing themes throughout ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood,'' with specific emphasis on the idea of "What makes someone a human?" The show/manga/novels use both androids and vampires to explore this question.

** The show deliberately asks this question, especially with [[RobotGirl Cameron]]. Interestingly, while Cameron remains an unabashedly mechanical entity ruthlessly bound by her programming to protect [[spoiler:or, when temporarily reverted to factory settings, kill]] John Connor, within that programming she shows remarkably human-like tendencies, such as enjoying certain types of music, practicing ballet, or pondering getting a tattoo. She also shows hints of emotion in spite of being supposedly emotionless, with worries and concerns about suicide [[spoiler: after she goes "bad" and tries to kill John]], confusion and annoyance when John picks up a girlfriend, and what has to be the closest thing to ''emotionless'' angst pertaining to [[spoiler: her conflicting desires to both protect and to kill John]].
** This is not including the episode "Allison from Palmdale" where Cameron's chip glitches and she literally ''becomes'' Allison Young, [[spoiler: a resistance fighter whose personality and appearance she stole and then killed.]] While in the Allison persona, Cameron shows outright fear, panic, anger, happiness, and even undergoes an [[BreakTheCutie emotional breakdown]] complete with a sobbing fit and actual tears. In fact, the entire episode is one ''long'' example of this trope in action.
** And this is ''before'' we even factor in John Henry and Catherine Weaver. Catherine in particular is certainly independently sentient [[spoiler:from whatever future AI assigned her]] and human to the point of being a significant wise-ass.

** The episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E44TheLatenessOfTheHour "The Lateness Of The Hour"]] featured an old couple living happily in a mansion filled with robot servants, and their unhappy daughter that wants to get out of the house. In the end, in true Twilight Zone style, she was a robot all along; when this revalation causes her a mental breakdown, the couple reprogram her to be a massagist.

** The show deliberately asks this question, especially with [[RobotGirl Cameron]]. interestingly, while Cameron remains an unabashedly mechanical entity ruthlessly bound by her programming to protect [[spoiler:and kill]] John Connor, within that programming she shows remarkably human-like tendencies, such as enjoying certain types of music, practicing ballet, or pondering getting a tattoo. She also shows hints of emotion in spite of being supposedly emotionless, with worries and concerns about suicide [[spoiler: after she goes "bad" and tries to kill John]], confusion and annoyance when John picks up a girlfriend, and what has to be the closest thing to ''emotionless'' angst pertaining to [[spoiler: her conflicting desires to both protect and to kill John]].

* On ''[[Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato),]]'' I.Q.-9 (Analyzer), who is [[FunnyRobot normally used]] mostly as [[PluckyComicRelief comic relief,]] delivers a [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness beautiful, heartbreaking little speech]] on the subject in one episode.
-->"And if I’m destroyed and only scrap metal is left, well, it once held a heart."
* In ''Anime/OutlawStar,'' Melfina worries whether or not she has a soul. She visits a chapel in one episode, hoping for some enlightenment on the question.

* In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the notion of 'Silicon Heaven' is programmed into all AIs above a certain standard (it's implied that scutters, at least, lack this programming). In the episode "The Last Day", Kryten faces shutdown, and accepts it humbly because of his belief in Silicon Heaven. Lister tries to argue him out of his belief, apparently unsuccessfully; however, Kryten later disables his robocidal replacement, Hudzen, with the same arguments Lister used on him.
-->'''Hudzen:'''(in existential agony) No... Silicon heaven? Calculators... Just... ''Die''?
** [[spoiler:Kryten then explains that he was only using these arguments to disable Hudzen, and that his faith in Silicon Heaven is unshaken.]]
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has examples that cover the whole range from "clearly nonsentient" (the Yonadan Oracle) to "clearly sentient" (Rayna), with most examples falling somewhere in between. When the crew encounters Nomad, it's interesting not only that Spock is ''able'' to mind-meld with it, but that he ''expects'' to be able to.

** The episode "The Measure of a Man" has Data fighting for his rights as a sentient being. [[spoiler:He wins a court case establishing him as a "person".]]
** Data actually does dream in the episode "Birthright, Part 1".
** And his ''nightmares'' kickstart the plot of "Phantasms".
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has a few episodes applying this trope to the [[ProjectedMan holographic]] Doctor, including an episode where the Doctor himself has to wonder if he's capable of dreaming of "electric sheep" as a hologram or if he's really a human deluded into thinking he's a hologram - by the way, all of this occurs ''while he's having said dream.'' There was another episode where he literally programmed himself to dream (daydream, specifically), which of course went horribly (and hilariously) wrong.
** One episode, directly referencing "The Measure Of a Man" above, has the Doctor take a publisher to court after they refused to withdraw a short story he wrote on the grounds that he isn't legally a person and has no creators rights. [[spoiler:Unlike said episode, the Doctor doesn't win personhood, as the official in the case isn't prepared to grant the status to beings who possesses no actual physical form. However, he IS granted the status of "Artist" and given full creative rights. The ending also implies that the story has sown the seeds of rebellion among other holographic lifeforms.]]
* The humanoid Cylons of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' seem to be constantly struggling to figure out exactly how human they want to be, and exactly how much "better" than humans they want to be. Sometimes this is the source of conflict among themselves. Other times it seems they have found some interesting balance in some areas. The Cylons are an interesting study of the downsides for a machine that wants to be human: they are [[ArtificialHuman biological androids]], which means that all it takes is choking or blood loss to kill them. Without their ability to [[BrainUploading brain upload]], they'll even die of old age. Cavil has a point when he complains about having been made so [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots ridiculously human]]. The Cylons are also, with the exception of Cavil, firmly convinced that they have souls, and the fact that they get as many religious visions as the humans would seem to back that up.

* The episode "Tin Man" of ''Series/StargateSG1'' plays with this concept when the team visits an alien planet and is immediately knocked unconscious. When they wake back up in a strange room, they meet Harlan, a cheerful but mysterious man, who will only insist that he has "made them better." Eventually the team discovers that "better" means "turned into androids". [[spoiler:It isn't discovered until later that Harlan did not transform the team into androids, but made perfect android copies of the original SG-1 team, who have been held "captive" on the alien planet and that Harlan himself is an android copy of the original. When the two teams meet, they have to decide what rights each one has to the "life" that they previously each believed to be their own. There are a few SandInMyEyes moments such as when the viewer realizes that Harlan made the replicas not only to help him maintain his machinery, but also because he was lonely, and Robot O'Neil has a particularly difficult time accepting the fact that he's not the real one.]] The androids, left as a loose end at the end of that episode, are brought back in a later episode when it turns out that they have been [[spoiler: conducting their own missions, and have found a big threat. The two teams team up, and the by the end of the episode the androids have all died. It ties up the loose end, but comes off as being cheap.]]