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QuoteFirst off, if you haven't seen The Animatrix, you need to watch both parts of The Second Renaissance, which is the backstory to The Matrix. This deals with why the machines rebelled, and the idea of a machine's right to life.
The Second Renaissance - Part 1
The Second Renaissance - Part 2
I personally think that this short film is the best example of robot dissent that I've seen in fiction. Is it wrong for a robot to defend its own existance? Is that not one of the three Asimovian laws? Why is a robot not allowed to decide whether to follow the laws entirely or selectively? Does a robot have the ability to decide?
The four-stages-beaten and 8-stages-beaten cutscenes in Mega Man 9 bring these questions into the Mega Man universe. If you haven't played the game yet, stop reading here. I'm not using spoiler tags because it's debatable whether this stuff is plot-relevant.
So we now know that beyond the original six "utility" robot masters, Dr. Light created more robots to fulfill industrial duties. We also learn that by law, robots must have an "expiration date," upon which they are deactivated. I'm not entirely sure why this is in effect, but it strikes me as morally wrong. Being used for evil and being replaced with improved models aside, there's no reason to deactivate them.
The fact that Dr. Wily convinces the robots that this practice is essentially immoral shows that robots in 20XX have the ability to make decisions for themselves. Still, they are bound to the Asimovian laws, which requires Wily to reprogram them. Still they do this out of their own desire to live.
Rock and Roll seem to have no problems with the idea of an expiration date. Are they exempt from this policy?
Is this expiration date the difference between a robot and a Reploid? What influence does this have on the design of X? What rights do robots have? Reploids?
