Wednesday, March 03, 2004

I just watched Natural City a few days ago... aside from being a mediocre movie, it did get me thinking about some things that I never really found satisfactory answers for. For those who haven't watched it yet, unless you're a die-hard fan of Korean films, don't bother. Everything you would want to know about the film, I'm gonna tell you.

It's been called the Korean Blade Runner/Matrix. Sure, whatever floats your boat, but I was intrigued enough to see the movie. As you know, the story revolves around a MP who's fallen in love with his doll, the new-age term for a cybernetic pleasure figurine - as real as any human, at least outwardly. Trouble is, these cyborgs face the scrap pile every three years or so, due to their AI chip wearing down. Of course, he doesn't want to give her up so easily, so things get rather messy. Suffice to say, it doesn't end happily - a film noir never does.

So, as has been debated countless times, what is love? Rather, in this instance, can you call the emotion you feel for a robot, love? Of course, how can you love what is, for all intents and purposes, a dead hunk of metal? Even if it is so real on the outside. We might call it infatuation, physical love. Sure enough, the actress playing the doll looks so pretty, it makes up for the boring parts of the film. In Isaac Asimov's Forward the Foundation, we learn of a guy who came to love his protector, figured out only at the end she was a robot, and didn't give a damn about it.

Romantic, isn't it? In a world where the only factor separating humans from their metal descendants is the metal itself, the lines not only blur, they disappear totally. For those in a marriage, you know that there will be times where you find you don't love your spouse. Of course, this is only temporary, for obvious reasons. To expand the point, picture this. Imagine your lover being afflicted with dementia, or Parkinson's, or any other mental degenerative disease. With all the mood swings, loss of mental faculties, etc. , could you still love him/her the same way? No, you could only love the past image of him/her. That's why sometimes you find you don't love your spose; the mental image is gone, temporarily. What you do know, is that it still exists, and that's what brings you to love him/her again.

Which brings me to my point: what we fall in love with isn't the person, despite any popular notions to the contrary. What we fall in love with is the mental picture of the person. This explains why we could also say we love our dog, or even our car. We love the image of a loyal, loving, playful pet. We love the image of a fast, powerful car. We love the image of a gentle, kind, loyal, humorous, partner (and any other adjectives you'd care to add), who will be there with and for us, through it all.

That's how man could love a robot.