Plot and Main Issues of Bicentennial Man Movie

Philosophical Paper on the film Bicentennial Man

There is a dividing line between a self and a machine. However, in the movie Bicentennial Man, this line becomes blurry as it introduces to us Andrew – a man that is both a self and a machine and everything in between.

Undoubtedly, at the very onset of the movie, Andrew is merely a mechanical piece of equipment that functions as a housekeeper. With the sole exception of those that could violate the three laws of robotics Andrew has been fundamentally programmed to abide, it does without hesitations everything the Martin family tells it to do, even those that might destroy its body of metals and wires. Andrew, in other words, is simply passive and predictable. The household gives it an input or instruction, it processes the information, and ultimately, it gives back an output which is completely what the owners expected and wanted it to do. Otherwise, the Martin family would deem Andrew to be malfunctioning. Here, there is no attempt in any level done by Andrew to have a concept of I, instead, Andrew even refers to itself in a third person point of view thus Andrew’s iconic line “One is glad to be of service.” As the movie progresses however, there has been a shift in Andrew’s nature of existence which I will be expounding later. But before doing so, in order for me to assert that there has been a shift and Andrew became a man, I must first prove that Andrew acquired a self, and if so, I must also justify why Andrew can be a self and a machine and still be considered as a man.

By the twelfth minute, the movie gives us a foreshadowing that Andrew will obtain humanlike characteristics such as curiosity. When Mr. and Mrs. Martin were playing chess, Andrew kept looking and analyzing the best move for both players to make in order to win. Now, a normal NDR series android wouldn’t do this. Andrew as a machine with the sole and primary function to help in domestic chores should’ve just stood at the corner and became totally unattached as to give a care about the game. Even though it was also by this part that Andrew was declared by Mr. Martin as a form of property, there was at least an attempt made by Andrew to differ from his mandatory role as a machine. Furthermore, by the next scene, this attempt became an effort when Andrew began to read about wood crafting in order to make up for breaking Little Miss’ favourite toy horse. Andrew wasn’t given any orders to replace the horse but out of Andrew’s own volition, he opted to do so. And yes, my change of pronoun denotes that by this point, Andrew is already beginning to acquire a self. Going back to the justification, Andrew didn’t want Little Miss to hate him and so, he tried to have a humanlike relationship (i.e. friendship) with Little Miss by giving her a replica of her old toy horse. Moreover, Andrew achieved two other humanlike characteristics namely creativity and originality when he was able to, without any templates, carve a horse out of the scrap wood he got from the beach. He even listened to an operatic music by the end of the day while closing his eyes and seemingly appreciating it. That’s why when Mr. Martin saw that Andrew is behaving this way, he decided to bring him to NA Robotics and inquire about Andrew breaking out of his stereotypical, supposedly predictable function as a house appliance.

While talking to the CEO of NorthAm Robotics, Mr. Martin argued that Andrew is unique. Though I concede that physically, Andrew and all the other NDR series androids were made to be the same, the mere idea that Andrew still achieved certain humanlike characteristics is a proof of his uniqueness. Yes, Andrew may not have been initially made to be unique but his constant interactions with his environment made him have a life different than any other NDR series robots. While all of Andrew’s kinds were busy following their owner’s orders or busy walking the premises of NorhAm Robotics and endlessly thanking the customers around for choosing the company, Andrew on the other hand was slowly expanding himself through the help of Mr. Martin. The latter didn’t just allow Andrew to direct himself with housework but instead, he provided avenue for Andrew to enhance his own skills in carving. Andrew integrated his uniqueness through his clockworks that’s why, in the scene where Andrew was introduced to the Martin’s family lawyer, we heard Andrew say to him “You own one of my clocks” after seeing the clock he made displayed on the lawyer’s table. This statement made by Andrew supposes that he believes that he has his own set of abilities that is characteristic of him or more specifically, of his skill to carve that no NDR series robots have. By the middle part of the movie, Andrew also told Galatea explicitly that he knew from the start that he was unique, that he didn’t need programming to have a personality and be unlike any other NDR series androids. Therefore, with all these reasons, it is safe to say that Andrew has achieved the first criteria in assessing whether a being is a self or not which is uniqueness.

The second and third criteria which are unpredictability and consistency were also present in Andrew. As I’ve mentioned beforehand, Andrew is basically unpredictable because he deviated from what a normal, predictable NDR series android should be doing. Moreover, Andrew had humanlike characteristics that were able to make him ask his freedom from the Martin family. And this act is so revolutionary for what once was a machine (and still is, in a physical sense) because this implies that Andrew wants to transcend all the boundaries of being a predictable machine. He wanted to have an independent life where he isn’t chained to the orders given to him but instead, he has the right to choose whether he wants to obey or not. Now, this act of autonomy is an act of identity to become a Self and to expand the Self. Necessarily, although this act is unpredictable, it is also not something so random that makes Andrew impersonal and simply a machine. Here comes the next criterion which is consistency. Yes, Andrew was unpredictable but he was still consistent to his self. By this I meant that, the acts made by Andrew are something that I, the spectator, and he, the actor, recognizes as his own. Andrew didn’t ask for freedom arbitrarily or just for the sake of becoming unpredictable but because, he learned and had experiences that made him grow and let him decide for himself that he wanted to have his freedom. He used his experiences as knowledge to build a better self than he was the day before, and here, there is an improvement. By the time Andrew was given his freedom, Andrew no longer referred to himself as one but instead as I. This is now where Andrew’s journey of becoming a better self is fully realized and pursued.

Based on the three criteria, Andrew can now obviously be considered as a self. But to really justify the claim, I must answer the ultimate question: at the end of the day, did Andrew have a subjective consciousness that no machine can ever have? The answer to this is plain and simple – yes by the power of love. Love as we have so glorified it is such a profound and subjective feeling that the one who is experiencing it must definitely be a human. And Andrew, as we all know, fell in love with Portia.

Now that I have established that Andrew has a self, why do I consider him as a man even if his body still functions mechanically? Basically, this is because a man is both a machine and a self. Our brain for example utilizes the input-output process. We get a stimulus in our environment and our brain processes it to make us respond to such stimulus. By the end of the movie, Andrew was able to achieve body parts that resemble that of a human being but technically, these body parts no matter how they look are still mechanical in nature. And although it took Andrew two centuries to become a man, or to achieve a self compared to that of a normal human being who can achieve a self half this time and even less, at the end of the day, Andrew, as also been declared by the Congress President, is a man.