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Just a Machine

712 statements
135 feature instances
161 referencing feature instances

Just a Machine	type	FeatureClass
Just a Machine	label	Just a Machine
Just a Machine	page	JustAMachine
Just a Machine	comment	Authors and characters in Speculative Fiction have oft pondered whether robots, AIs, clones, and other human-like entities can become sapient, and if so, if they also carry a soul. Do Androids Dream? Well, not in this universe. For whatever reason, the author decides that in her setting the A.I.s, clones, or whatnot may be sentient, but never sapient. They can fall anywhere on the Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence — they may know a lot or have incredible computing power, but lack that final je ne sais quoi that separates the Empty Shell from a real boy. Even the godlike machine intellect is somehow lacking a crucial human component that gives its existence purpose and meaning. Typically, these settings have the placidly monotone ship's computer help the crew when asked but never act on its own. (Alternatively, they may be non-sapient or have very flawed sort of consciousness simply as a result of technological limitations) Then there are the people who just don't think they can't. To them, it's "just a machine". Its only value is the monetary expense incurred in building, cloning, coding, or buying it. It has no rights, you can't even be accused of animal cruelty for beating it (at worst, of being wasteful or having poor taste), even when it's unique and has No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup. The humans will doubt or deny that they can grow beyond their programming and learn to feel, and if they can feel, then these feelings are ignored or treated as less valid than a human's smallest whimsy. It should come as no surprise that these humans are keen on enslaving them, or if at war think nothing of killing them. Their destruction is never considered a moral question — just one of economics or simple survival. Oh, and you can expect these people to never use male or female pronouns to refer to these characters. They often consciously choose not to as a means to avoid humanizing them. Is it any wonder the robots, clones, etc. Turned Against Their Masters? Even if they are right, you have to wonder just how psychologically healthy it is to mistreat something that is 100% human in the Uncanny Valley. It can get pretty odd when the machines themselves claim this is the case, usually to justify being the one to make a Heroic Sacrifice. Such scenes usually invoke empathy for the robot, and lead the audience to empathise with them. Note that the trope has seldom been played straight since the earliest days of science fiction. If it is implied to be self-aware there will at least be a lampshade on this trope. Compare Not Even Human. Sub-Trope of What Measure Is a Non-Human?. Contrast Zombie Advocate and Androids Are People, Too. See also "It" Is Dehumanizing.
Just a Machine	fetched	2024-04-06T07:32:02Z
Just a Machine	parsed	2024-04-06T07:32:02Z
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to AIs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to AllThereInTheManual: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to ArtificialHuman: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to CorruptCorporateExecutive: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to DemonicPossession: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to ExactWords: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to FantasticRacism: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to GrowBeyondTheirProgramming: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to HumongousMecha: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to InvertedTrope: Not an Item - IGNORE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to ItIsDehumanizing: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to JustFollowingOrders: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to KarmaMeter: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to MechanicalLifeforms: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to MiniMecha: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to OlderThanSteam: Not an Item - CAT
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to OlderThanTelevision: Not an Item - CAT
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to PersonalityChip: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to PsychicPowers: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to Robeast: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to Synthesis: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to TheGadfly: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to TheMegas: Not an Item - IGNORE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to WasOnceAMan: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingComment	Dropped link to kickthedog: Not an Item - FEATURE
Just a Machine	processingUnknown	Synthesis
Just a Machine	isPartOf	DBTropes
Just a Machine / int_1133352a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_1133352a	comment	Most of this boils down to the Terminator-esque Geth War in the backstory, where the quarians made a decision to shut off the geth in fear of them growing sapient and more powerful, only for the geth (who were originally designed as weapons of war in addition to more mundane tasks) to strike back, win the resulting war, and then wipe out the quarians almost completely. As far as the galaxy is concerned, trying to treat synthetic life with the same respect as organic life is inviting it to grow stronger, and the last time synthetics got power over organics... well, the quarians had 99.9% of their population slaughtered and haven't seen their homeworld in going on three centuries.
Just a Machine / int_1133352a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_1133352a	featureConfidence	1.0
Terminator (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_1133352a
Just a Machine / int_1377df	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_1377df	comment	In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor tries to invoke this when trying to convince John to destroy the Terminator reprogrammed to protect them.
Just a Machine / int_1377df	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_1377df	featureConfidence	1.0
Terminator 2: Judgment Day	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_1377df
Just a Machine / int_13d84dd9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_13d84dd9	comment	A constant theme in Astro Boy, with anti-robot groups wanting to limit or destroy all intelligent robots.
Just a Machine / int_13d84dd9	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_13d84dd9	featureConfidence	1.0
Astro Boy (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_13d84dd9
Just a Machine / int_1852cbb9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_1852cbb9	comment	Largely averted with the Glitch from Starbound. The other races treat them as any other being, albeit occasionally being confused by how they work. (The Avians don't understand technology that doesn't run on Avolite crystals, and the Hylotl are debating whether a machine can have a soul.) It helps that they were made by now-absent precursors and not humans (and thus not beholden to anyone) and allowed to evolve as any other organism. It also helps that they're best friends with the Florans, who will gladly eviscerate anyone who picks on their friends. (Not that the Florans need an excuse to do that.)
Just a Machine / int_1852cbb9	featureApplicability	-1.0
Just a Machine / int_1852cbb9	featureConfidence	1.0
Starbound (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_1852cbb9
Just a Machine / int_198091c2	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_198091c2	comment	Logan's Run: In "Crypt", the people taken out of suspended animation do not want Rem to be involved in the decision to determine which three of them will receive the cure to The Plague because he is an android and they do not trust his judgment. David Pera is particularly disdainful of Rem and makes numerous jokes at his expense. However, they eventually come to trust and respect him when he solves the murders of Frederick Lyman and Victoria Mackie. Pera even says that they might name a city after him.
Just a Machine / int_198091c2	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_198091c2	featureConfidence	1.0
Logan's Run	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_198091c2
Just a Machine / int_1a044a10	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_1a044a10	comment	Return to Oz: The clockwork man Tiktok is capable of thinking, but as he is only a machine, he "can-not be sor-ry or hap-py, no mat-ter what hap-pens". When the characters are speculating who will be turned into ornaments, Jack says "Tiktok's not even alive", to which Tiktok replies "I have always valued my lifelessness". But near the end of the film, Tiktok believes his steel brains are damaged, and he cries green oily tears.
Just a Machine / int_1a044a10	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_1a044a10	featureConfidence	1.0
Return to Oz	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_1a044a10
Just a Machine / int_20ac8a71	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_20ac8a71	comment	Rachel Pollack's run on Doom Patrol featured an issue that discussed this deeply regarding Robotman. Cliff Steele's historically struggled with his humanity ever since he was reduced to a brain in a robotic shell, but then discovered a copy of his personality downloaded onto a disk had fallen into the hands of a hacker group which started churning out bootleg Robotman copies. The manager of the manufacturing plant smugly asked Cliff to prove how he was any more or less the real Cliff Steele compared to the copies who all thought they were Cliff too. This legitimately shook Cliff, who started to believe he really couldn't prove he was a person until Coagula managed to empathize with his situation. Eventually, the bootleg Cliffs and the manufacturing plant were destroyed by a virus Niles Caulder made to wipe out the system. Caulder told the manager he was the rightful owner of the disk and the robotic bodies since his designs were used to make them. The man tries to rattle Cliff again by saying he's no different from the bootleg versions, but Cliff disagrees for one reason.
Just a Machine / int_20ac8a71	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_20ac8a71	featureConfidence	1.0
Doom Patrol (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_20ac8a71
Just a Machine / int_227431b6	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_227431b6	comment	Runaways: Xavin has this attitude to the cyborg Victor at first, dismissively calling him "automaton" and offering to buy Karolina another toy if they break him. No one is impressed, and they gradually grow out of it. At one point, Molly objects to leaving Leapfrog (the team's flying frog-tank) in danger. Nico retorts that Leapfrog is just a machine; when Victor gives her a look, she adds "You know what I mean." It's occasionally hinted that Leapfrog is sapient, but never delved into too deeply.
Just a Machine / int_227431b6	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_227431b6	featureConfidence	1.0
Runaways (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_227431b6
Just a Machine / int_25305527	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_25305527	comment	The CC Corp in .hack treats AIs as errant data and nothing more.
Just a Machine / int_25305527	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_25305527	featureConfidence	1.0
.hack (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_25305527
Just a Machine / int_26541dd6	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_26541dd6	comment	In Ex Machina, this is Nathan's stance on his creations; whatever pride he may have in them, he clearly thinks nothing of repeatedly dismantling them and starting over.
Just a Machine / int_26541dd6	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_26541dd6	featureConfidence	1.0
Ex Machina	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_26541dd6
Just a Machine / int_268f6fd1	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_268f6fd1	comment	In the third film, Sentinel Prime's hatred for humanity comes partly from how humans see the Autobots as this. Especially when it comes to him and Optimus, who are the last remaining Primes.
Just a Machine / int_268f6fd1	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_268f6fd1	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers: Dark of the Moon	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_268f6fd1
Just a Machine / int_283b23c1	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_283b23c1	comment	Zig-zagged in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. The TSAB thought that the Wolkenritter were nothing more than semi-autonomous guardian programs for the Book of Darkness, something that Nanoha and Fate have a hard time believing since both Vita and Signum clearly had feelings. The next episode revealed that this used to be the case, but it isn't anymore thanks to Hayate's influence.
Just a Machine / int_283b23c1	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_283b23c1	featureConfidence	1.0
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_283b23c1
Just a Machine / int_2a842e3a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_2a842e3a	comment	In the Doctor Who novel Death and Diplomacy, the Doctor casually destroys a security droid with his umbrella — then immediately turns around and admonishes the rest of his group not to take away the wrong lesson.
Just a Machine / int_2a842e3a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_2a842e3a	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Who – Expanded Universe (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_2a842e3a
Just a Machine / int_2a8943c0	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_2a8943c0	comment	Miraculous Ladybug: Max's small talking drone-like robot Markov impresses most of his classmates, but Ms. Mendeleev and Mr. Damocles only refer to Markov as a "toy" and insist (over Max's protests) that "it" does not have emotions, and that Markov's claims of loving Max were simply things Max programmed "it" to say. After Mr. Damocles mutes his voice and stuffs him in a cabinet, Hawk Moth akumatizes him. Hawk Moth can only akumatize people feeling negative emotions, which proves that the teachers were wrong: Markov absolutely does feel emotion. In a later episode, Markov attempts to make conversation with some service drones on a train. However, these drones aren't actually sentient at all, to Markov's disappointment.
Just a Machine / int_2a8943c0	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_2a8943c0	featureConfidence	1.0
Miraculous Ladybug	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_2a8943c0
Just a Machine / int_2ea6ae26	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_2ea6ae26	comment	Star Trek: Picard: In "The End is the Beginning", Rios treats his Emergency Medical Hologram as nothing more than a program. In "The Impossible Box", Narissa contemptuously refers to Soji as merely being this when chiding Narek over his affections for her. This is presumably the general Zhat Vash opinion on synthetics.
Just a Machine / int_2ea6ae26	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_2ea6ae26	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Picard	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_2ea6ae26
Just a Machine / int_305faa76	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_305faa76	comment	Spacetrawler is unusual in that the robots themselves admit that they're just machines.
Just a Machine / int_305faa76	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_305faa76	featureConfidence	1.0
Spacetrawler (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_305faa76
Just a Machine / int_310607c9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_310607c9	comment	Pryce from Wolf 359 has this outlook toward the A.I.s she creates, including and most prominently seen during her interactions with Hera, the most prominent AI character in the series, calling her "it" and referring to her by her assigned number instead of her name.
Just a Machine / int_310607c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_310607c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Wolf 359 (Podcast)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_310607c9
Just a Machine / int_31a48e8e	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_31a48e8e	comment	Both the 1963 original and 1995 revival versions of The Outer Limits adapted "I Robot" (based on the "Adam Link" story by Eando Binder). Each episode has the robot put on trial. Part of the case was whether he was a sapient being deserving of rights under the US constitution or Just a Machine. He wins the case, but dies in a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the episode. For bonus points, in the remake, he sacrificed himself saving the prosecuting attorney who had argued against his sapience. In the original, he's destroyed while saving a little girl he'd accidentally injured earlier in the episode.
Just a Machine / int_31a48e8e	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_31a48e8e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Outer Limits (1963)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_31a48e8e
Just a Machine / int_38c57aa2	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_38c57aa2	comment	The warforged in Eberron are very much not just machines, and the struggle against this view is part of the setting: the nation of Thrane keeps many warforged in "indentured servitude" to pay off the expense of constructing them, and a lot of people around the other nations think of them as little more than weapons waiting to go off. Some warforged take the exact opposite tack and declare that there is no "just" to being a machine, and consider themselves the superior lifeform.
Just a Machine / int_38c57aa2	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_38c57aa2	featureConfidence	1.0
Eberron (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_38c57aa2
Just a Machine / int_3c65a1d1	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3c65a1d1	comment	In Crest of the Stars, the Abh, a genetically engineered race, regard themselves as still being humans, but according to enemy propoganda, 'Abh aren't people, they're organic machines', which is readily admitted as their true origin by an Abh not ten seconds after the propaganda is shown. They were specifically meant for long-distance space exploration before faster-than-light technology had been fully developed.
Just a Machine / int_3c65a1d1	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3c65a1d1	featureConfidence	1.0
Crest of the Stars	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3c65a1d1
Just a Machine / int_3e0d6d5e	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3e0d6d5e	comment	In Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race, Dr. Wily sometimes has this view on robots, and the Conduit definitely does.
Just a Machine / int_3e0d6d5e	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3e0d6d5e	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3e0d6d5e
Just a Machine / int_3f3abe9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3f3abe9	comment	In the first episode of Rick and Morty, Morty reluctantly shoots a guard after Rick tells him "It's okay, they're just robots!" The insectoid guard falls down screaming and gushing blood while an associate frantically yells for someone to notify the guard's wife; turns out Rick just called them robots because they're bureaucrats and he doesn't respect them.
Just a Machine / int_3f3abe9	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3f3abe9	featureConfidence	1.0
Rick and Morty	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3f3abe9
Just a Machine / int_3f734c20	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3f734c20	comment	Dark Matter (2015): Boone says this regarding androids, but is called out by Sarah (who exists only as a sentient digital avatar) and later apologizes to the Android over it.
Just a Machine / int_3f734c20	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3f734c20	featureConfidence	1.0
Dark Matter (2015)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3f734c20
Just a Machine / int_3fbb941b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3fbb941b	comment	Sex Robots and Vegan Meat: The publicity man for a start-up company making a Sex Bot considers this to be an advantage: misogynists can beat up their sex bot instead of beating up their wives and girlfriends "'they can be angry at this, and beat this, and that should be fine â€“â€™ he throws open his arms â€“ â€˜because it will not feel a thing, we promise!â€™." The author thinks it more likely that beating up mechanical women will mentally normalise beating up real women.
Just a Machine / int_3fbb941b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3fbb941b	featureConfidence	1.0
Sex Robots and Vegan Meat	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3fbb941b
Just a Machine / int_3fbd173e	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3fbd173e	comment	In Freefall, Florence Ambrose (An anthropomorphic red wolf) is classified as an AI, and as such, is treated like Just A Robot by a few, especially the mayor! It is worth noting that this gave the Mayor a very nasty Kick the Dog moment for some... in a humor comic, much to the surprise of the author. The whole Gardener in the Dark plot revolves around this. One of the executives at the company which makes and owns the robots has planned a forced upgrade that will lobotomize them and return them non-sentience. Mr. Kornada is doing this purely to make an obscene, economy-shattering profit and sees them all as this trope — even twisting the three laws to get his own robot assistant to help him pull it all off. Of course, there's not much indication that he sees ''people'' as much better than objects, either. When the mayor learns of the update (though not the motivation behind it), she gets another Kick the Dog moment by choosing to do nothing about it to prevent human obsolescence. The mayor does reexamine her opinion when Florence sabotages the update, because she's mad at Florence, not her designer or programmer, Florence herself. Getting mad at an A.I. is silly, it's just following its programming; getting mad at Florence means there must be a person to get mad at.
Just a Machine / int_3fbd173e	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3fbd173e	featureConfidence	1.0
Freefall (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3fbd173e
Just a Machine / int_3ff2f316	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_3ff2f316	comment	The Medstar Duology has one self-aware droid say that all droids that aren't simple automatons have a sense of humor. In the Coruscant Nights Trilogy, the same droid reflects that there are very few self-aware droids, and no one knows just how they come about, but most people won't recognize the difference, since it seems to happen spontaneously. So of two droids from the same line, one might be self-aware, the other as limited as its programming.
Just a Machine / int_3ff2f316	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_3ff2f316	featureConfidence	1.0
Coruscant Nights	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_3ff2f316
Just a Machine / int_438b63e4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_438b63e4	comment	Meanwhile, human-made "dumb" AIs are non-sentient programs made for relatively basic tasks, such as the on-the-move mission briefing provided by Auntie Dot, with most barely having any personality whatsoever. While humans occasionally form some attachment to their assigned "dumb" AI, such AIs are treated even worse than "smart" AIs, since they're mass-produced literal tools. That said, one exception to this is the strong relationship between "Vergil" (a subroutine of the New Mombasa Superintendent AI) and Sadie Endesha.
Just a Machine / int_438b63e4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_438b63e4	featureConfidence	1.0
Halo: Reach (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_438b63e4
Just a Machine / int_46ae7ca0	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_46ae7ca0	comment	Some people say this about Red Tornado, with even fellow superheroes believing that he is just a "really well-made machine". He briefly lost custody of his (adopted) daughter because of this. This is especially frustrating since in the Red Tornado's first origin, he is a Sylph (spirit of air) placed inside of a robot body. Meaning he provably has a soul, unlike the average human.
Just a Machine / int_46ae7ca0	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_46ae7ca0	featureConfidence	1.0
Red Tornado (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_46ae7ca0
Just a Machine / int_4c363bcc	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_4c363bcc	comment	In Sentinels of the Multiverse, Tachyon believes this of Omnitron-X. She's shown consistently to be wrong: Omnitron-X's backstory involves being built to have compassion, and the flavour text on various cards shows Omnitron-X to act reasonably human, including having a sense of humour and even being boastful.
Just a Machine / int_4c363bcc	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_4c363bcc	featureConfidence	1.0
Sentinels of the Multiverse (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_4c363bcc
Just a Machine / int_4ce969a9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_4ce969a9	comment	This trope plays a bigger role in Bungie's earlier Marathon series, where rampancy in AIs (which is not a terminal condition here, but the potential beginning of highly productive intellectual and emotional development) seems to be most commonly induced by severely mistreating them or continually giving them tasks below their intelligence (though given how smart AIs in general seem to be, even highly placed ones seem to fall prone to this with enough time). Indeed, Durandal's descent into rampancy and his continuing psychotic break/growth into his own individual person is the main driver of the series's entire plot.
Just a Machine / int_4ce969a9	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_4ce969a9	featureConfidence	1.0
Marathon (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_4ce969a9
Just a Machine / int_4d551426	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_4d551426	comment	In an unusual example from a A Miracle of Science, the Big Bad's robots try to talk him into surrendering to the police, causing him to lash out and call one of them an "ungrateful device". As noted in The Rant, trying to insult the robot in this way shows that Haas knows Dryden is a person with feelings to hurt.
Just a Machine / int_4d551426	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_4d551426	featureConfidence	1.0
A Miracle of Science (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_4d551426
Just a Machine / int_4d62b918	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_4d62b918	comment	A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky: After Yvette calls machines soulless, Oliver dicusses his experiences as a form of artificial:
Just a Machine / int_4d62b918	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_4d62b918	featureConfidence	1.0
A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_4d62b918
Just a Machine / int_4d6ad22f	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_4d6ad22f	comment	In Virtue's Last Reward, when Luna was presented to a young Kyle after he asked Dr. Klim for a mother, the child refused to acknowledge her, seeing her as just a robot who couldn't really feel. He interpreted her genuine feelings of sadness as "just clever programming".
Just a Machine / int_4d6ad22f	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_4d6ad22f	featureConfidence	1.0
Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_4d6ad22f
Just a Machine / int_5030d3bb	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_5030d3bb	comment	A.I.: Artificial Intelligence has a group of humans who hunt and brutally destroy androids to vent their rage at the automation of labor.
Just a Machine / int_5030d3bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_5030d3bb	featureConfidence	1.0
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_5030d3bb
Just a Machine / int_50b9086a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_50b9086a	comment	The Ready Jet Go! episode "Sydney 2" explores robots and their emotions, and what it means to be human (or a Human Alien). Jet doesn't seem to care for Jet 2 much because he's Cool, but Inefficient. He just leaves him to rust. Notably, it's Sydney who gets the idea of making a friend for Jet 2, and not Jet himself. Sydney later realizes that robots are not capable of the same complex emotions and interactions as humans/aliens. However, with a little help from her engineer mom and a can-do spirit, the two robots are programmed to make friends with each other.
Just a Machine / int_50b9086a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_50b9086a	featureConfidence	1.0
Ready Jet Go!	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_50b9086a
Just a Machine / int_50bcf7a6	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_50bcf7a6	comment	From Homestuck, a frustrated Sollux says this to Aradia, right before she explodes. It's clear he doesn't mean it however: he's pretty torn up about her exploding a few seconds later. later in Act 6, This applies to Dirk's autoresponder. Jake thinks at first that the autoresponder is just some elaborate pranking machine made by Dirk to screw with him. It doesn't help that the autoresponder has a marked tendency to hit on Jake constantly, nor that he's also just plain kind of a dick. The AR does manage to convince him otherwise, though, and Jake is suitably guilty about it all.
Just a Machine / int_50bcf7a6	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_50bcf7a6	featureConfidence	1.0
Homestuck (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_50bcf7a6
Just a Machine / int_52286322	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_52286322	comment	In Artifice, two security guards taunt the android soldier Deacon in the opening scene, referring to him as just "an appliance"
Just a Machine / int_52286322	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_52286322	featureConfidence	1.0
Artifice (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_52286322
Just a Machine / int_53a73ca0	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_53a73ca0	comment	Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in "Downfall of a Droid" and the next episode "Duel of the Droids", R2-D2 is captured. While Anakin Skywalker is extremely upset about the loss of his friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn't understand what the big deal is.
Just a Machine / int_53a73ca0	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_53a73ca0	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Wars: The Clone Wars	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_53a73ca0
Just a Machine / int_55c5a085	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_55c5a085	comment	Subverted in Mazinger Z universe. Kouji and his friends usually felt no remorse when they blew up giant robots. But when they destroyed a Robeast acted more like a human being than a machine, or when a Ridiculously Human Robot died, they often felt sad. When Kouji killed the Gamia sisters (three identical android assassins), they were so human-looking he felt sickened and disturbed. Dr. Hell and his Co-Dragons nearly always regarded his robotic soldiers like Just Machines and disposable, but there are exceptions: Baron Ashura called Gamia Q1, Q2, and Q3 his/her "daughters", and he actually grieved their deaths (the person who is capable of machine-gunning between laughs a group of survivors of a shipwreck). And then you have Minerva-X, a Humongous Mecha Fem Bot that was capable of thinking, feeling and acting on her own. Kouji and his friends treated her as if she was a person and Kouji went so far to bury her after her death.
Just a Machine / int_55c5a085	featureApplicability	-0.3
Just a Machine / int_55c5a085	featureConfidence	1.0
Mazinger Z	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_55c5a085
Just a Machine / int_569093cc	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_569093cc	comment	In DuckTales (2017), most of Gyro's inventions turn evil. What Gyro himself has failed to notice (but Louie has) is that nearly all of them seen on-screen (though not B.O.Y.D., who is normally a pacifist but was forced into evil by Dr. Akita) do so after someone (often Gyro himself) talks about them being unfeeling machines.
Just a Machine / int_569093cc	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_569093cc	featureConfidence	1.0
DuckTales (2017)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_569093cc
Just a Machine / int_5937b637	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_5937b637	comment	ULTRAKILL: Archangel Gabriel will repeatedly insult V1 to his face this way, being utterly convinced "it" is "not even mortal" and just an object that should be beaten back into an inanimate state. Even the word "machine" is practically spat out like a slur by the time of the rematch. It takes losing the rematch for him to realize perhaps there is something more to V1.
Just a Machine / int_5937b637	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_5937b637	featureConfidence	1.0
ULTRAKILL (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_5937b637
Just a Machine / int_59da62aa	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_59da62aa	comment	In the Lonesome Road DLC of Fallout: New Vegas, ED-E reveals it was painfully experimented on by the orders of Colonel Autumn, much to the outrage of its creator Dr. Whitley - and possibly the Courier. If you ask Trudy, the bartender in Goodsprings, what she knows about Victor (a robot with a cowboy personality who saved your life) she will consistently refer to him as "it" even when you refer to him as "he". Then again, she seems to find him creepy, rather than disliking him because he's a robot. Ulysses really seems to hate ED-E. Just listen to the scorn in his voice when he says "that machine'". Justified, as Ulysses is aware that ED-E is the one who sent the signal that destroyed the Divide.
Just a Machine / int_59da62aa	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_59da62aa	featureConfidence	1.0
Fallout: New Vegas (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_59da62aa
Just a Machine / int_5bb3aaab	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_5bb3aaab	comment	Ghost in the Shell (1995) deals with an advanced AI program let loose on the internet, who claims to be a sentient entity. People disagree, saying that the idea that a program could be sentient is preposterous. The Puppetmaster calls them off their high horses most awesomely.
Just a Machine / int_5bb3aaab	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_5bb3aaab	featureConfidence	1.0
Ghost in the Shell (1995)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_5bb3aaab
Just a Machine / int_5c897f4a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_5c897f4a	comment	There seems to be some discrimination against AIs in Schlock Mercenary, despite the fact that none of them have Turned Against Their Masters—except for one, and that's because his masters were xenophobic warmongers. This gets inverted later on, when an AI is driven homicidally insane by simulated eons of sensory deprivation. And then again, when a faulty mainframe screws with her mind while she's experiencing extreme trauma. Her wanton obsession with destruction is interlaced with ingenuity, banter, and pure, writhing hatred. The cast concludes that she couldn't possibly be a machine - mere machines' minds can't disintegrate that much. This convinces the other AIs not to fundamentally change her personality when she offers herself up for a formatting to fix her madness.
Just a Machine / int_5c897f4a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_5c897f4a	featureConfidence	1.0
Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_5c897f4a
Just a Machine / int_63597a00	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_63597a00	comment	The Adventures of Slim Goodbody: Played with in a very odd way: the resident Robot Buddy, B-1, acknowledged that a robot like him can't Grow Beyond Their Programming, and indeed can't do anything at all unless he's programmed to do it. In fact, he crashes if he doesn't regularly receive new data via a tape drive in his chest. Despite all this, none of the other characters ever treat him with any less respect than they would a human, and in general they treat the emotions of machines with the same validity they would a human's emotions.
Just a Machine / int_63597a00	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_63597a00	featureConfidence	1.0
The Adventures of Slim Goodbody	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_63597a00
Just a Machine / int_63e72a51	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_63e72a51	comment	Many, many comics in 2000 AD feature this, with humans almost universally hating and mistreating robots (the few that didn't were usually regarded as exceptions) despite the latter possessing human-like intelligence, quirks, feelings, and so on. Sometimes got to the point that you started to wonder who built them since nobody seemed to want them around... Even a man like Judge Dredd, who will unhesitatingly champion mutant rights, considers them nothing more than sophisticated tools.
Just a Machine / int_63e72a51	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_63e72a51	featureConfidence	1.0
2000 AD (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_63e72a51
Just a Machine / int_6441bdf2	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6441bdf2	comment	Android Kikaider: The Animation addresses this theme repeatedly. Jiro is an android built with a conscience to give him a moral compass like humans. The legitimacy of his existence is rejected at various points by the people around him and leaves a deep impact on how he views himself.
Just a Machine / int_6441bdf2	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6441bdf2	featureConfidence	1.0
Android Kikaider: The Animation	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6441bdf2
Just a Machine / int_65b19a2c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_65b19a2c	comment	G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers has the Joes ordered to shut down Wheeljack and Bumblebee, who have revealed themselves to the Joes to get their help stopping Cobra from using the excavated Autobots and Decepticons as war machines, so that they can be dismantled and studied while they simply nuke Cobra into oblivion. Duke reluctantly follows his orders until Wheeljack manages to warn them that nuclear weapons and Energon stockpiles do not mix.
Just a Machine / int_65b19a2c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_65b19a2c	featureConfidence	1.0
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_65b19a2c
Just a Machine / int_68c8e9ad	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_68c8e9ad	comment	Super Robot Wars: What Vindel Mauser thought for the overall of Lemon's W-series. Before his retcon, Axel Almer used to have the same mindset (only maybe more extreme), but after retcon, he got better. Duminuss also utters this to Lamia Loveless if they ever meet in battle, which she vehemently denied.
Just a Machine / int_68c8e9ad	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_68c8e9ad	featureConfidence	1.0
Super Robot Wars (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_68c8e9ad
Just a Machine / int_6a4bddd6	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6a4bddd6	comment	When Iron Man and Death's Head team up against Recorder 451, Death's Head is surprised that Tony hasn't ruled out killing their target, and asks if he's one of those heroes who have a code against killing that doesn't apply to robots. Tony assures him that some of his best friends are robots, before realizing "That sounds kind of robot racist, right?"
Just a Machine / int_6a4bddd6	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6a4bddd6	featureConfidence	1.0
Iron Man (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6a4bddd6
Just a Machine / int_6bbde1c8	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6bbde1c8	comment	This is zigzagged in Overwatch; because of an earlier Robot War some characters feel fine referring to Omnics as 'scrap metal,' 'bucket of bolts,' etc. However, among the player characters that have trait it isn't clear if they actually believe this or just subscribe to Fantastic Racism. Complicating the matter is the order of Omnic Monks that seek to heal the wounds of the war, and claim they have a soul...
Just a Machine / int_6bbde1c8	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6bbde1c8	featureConfidence	1.0
Overwatch (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6bbde1c8
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b3	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b3	comment	In Fallout 3, there is a man trying to get an escaped android he owned returned to him. If asked if this is cruel, he'll claim that you can't enslave a robot any more than you can enslave a toaster or a water purifier. The android itself, it must be noted, disagrees and finds human allies who share its views. This becomes a major theme in Fallout 4. The Institute creates fully sentient androids (known as synths) and uses them both as slave labor and to infiltrate the Commonwealth (via Kill and Replace) to do their dirty work above ground. The Institute regards synths as merely tools, while other factions see them differently. The Railroad views synths as people and helps those synths who have escaped the Institute to start new lives in the outside world, while the Brotherhood of Steel views synths as abominations to be destroyed alongside their creators. When one of their own, Paladin Danse, is revealed to be a synth, they all (but Scribe Haylen, who defends him) immediately start referring to him as "it".
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b3	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b3	featureConfidence	1.0
Fallout 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b3
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b4	comment	This becomes a major theme in Fallout 4. The Institute creates fully sentient androids (known as synths) and uses them both as slave labor and to infiltrate the Commonwealth (via Kill and Replace) to do their dirty work above ground. The Institute regards synths as merely tools, while other factions see them differently. The Railroad views synths as people and helps those synths who have escaped the Institute to start new lives in the outside world, while the Brotherhood of Steel views synths as abominations to be destroyed alongside their creators. When one of their own, Paladin Danse, is revealed to be a synth, they all (but Scribe Haylen, who defends him) immediately start referring to him as "it".
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b4	featureConfidence	1.0
Fallout 4 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6c1d09b4
Just a Machine / int_6d2073b8	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6d2073b8	comment	This is the main plot of Binary Domain: due to the prevalence and necessity of robots in a flooded-coastline earth, a worldwide ban on creating robots designed to act like humans has been reinforced by R.U.S.T. Crews for forty years. Then one day, a suicide bomber tries to assassinate the president of the world's largest robotics corporation for creating him. Thirty years ago. Soon after, the US president's commanding general is revealed to also be a robot. Both are murdered without even blinking. Apparently, the secret to robot sentience is fear and suffering in their core programming. Of course, the Hybrids are unquestionably capable of feeling emotions... but that doesn't stop the U.N. from issuing a kill order on them and their families.
Just a Machine / int_6d2073b8	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6d2073b8	featureConfidence	1.0
Binary Domain (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6d2073b8
Just a Machine / int_6e627c5c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6e627c5c	comment	Halo 5: Guardians makes this one of a revived Cortana's reasons for her harsh methods of dealing with dissidents opposing her plan of enforced peace. Since AIs live under the threat of death for disobedience constantly, Cortana views it as a perfectly legitimate way of governing the galaxy. When Locke quibbles that AIs aren't born but built, Cortana gets very hostile and sarcastically mentions the trope word for word, revealing how much it's bothered her that humans don't treat AIs well.
Just a Machine / int_6e627c5c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6e627c5c	featureConfidence	1.0
Halo 5: Guardians (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6e627c5c
Just a Machine / int_6f734712	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_6f734712	comment	Smallville, in the season 7 finale did this in probably the worst way possible:
Just a Machine / int_6f734712	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_6f734712	featureConfidence	1.0
Smallville	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_6f734712
Just a Machine / int_70814599	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_70814599	comment	Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis: Feature this trope heavily in episodes where characters interact with A.I.s, up to and including causing the slow deaths of non-hostile Asurans out of paranoia. At least taking this attitude towards Fifth came back to bite them. This attitude is at least challenged in Stargate Atlantis when Rodney realizes that in order to destroy the Asurans he has to build one and send it to its "death." Fran eventually even made McKay uncomfortable with her blase attitude towards (and excitement for) her impending destruction.
Just a Machine / int_70814599	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_70814599	featureConfidence	1.0
Stargate SG-1	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_70814599
Just a Machine / int_72e90d70	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_72e90d70	comment	Don't Look Deeper: Aisha is viewed this way by her owners, believing she's a dangerous unauthorized experiment to shut down, nothing more, in spite of all evidence. Abel temporarily shows sympathy, but not enough to stop him from participating in this.
Just a Machine / int_72e90d70	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_72e90d70	featureConfidence	1.0
Don't Look Deeper	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_72e90d70
Just a Machine / int_75149ccd	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_75149ccd	comment	In the X-Wing Series Corran considers his astromech droid Whistler to be almost family, someone he can talk about his wife or dad with, and bristles at the thought of putting a Restraining Bolt on him. Meanwhile his commander Wedge Antilles finds his cowardly R5 unit "Mynock" so annoying (it squeals during battles) that he wipes its memory and renames it Gate without a second thought. He actually treats Gate much better, so maybe it's just a personality issue (of course that means he changed the droid's personality to suit him better). And while we can't be sure how much Myn Donos bonds with his astromech Shiner, he does view the droid as the last survivor from his previous squadron and has a near-breakdown when Shiner is briefly disabled by an ion blast—and a full-blown Heroic BSoD when Shiner is destroyed. In Solo Command, Han Solo, Wraith Squadron, and at least a few officers have a party to blow off steam. Wedge insists that the astromech droids all be included in the party, citing that they work hard and deserve time off too.
Just a Machine / int_75149ccd	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_75149ccd	featureConfidence	1.0
X-Wing Series	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_75149ccd
Just a Machine / int_755b343f	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_755b343f	comment	Played with in Halo: While human-made "smart" AIs are basically trans-human minds capable of both intellectual and emotional development (due to the fact that they're made by literally scanning human brains), they're regarded primarily as tools, and don't seem to have any real "rights". However, the general populace does recognize them as being sentient, and the humans who actually work with them often treat them more as fellow co-workers and friends rather than mere devices, with the close bond between the Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana being one of the key emotional cornerstones of the series; a parallel could perhaps be made to real-life relationships between some slaves and their masters, with the former having no real rights, but with the latter still ultimately regarding him/her as worthy of friendship and respect. The AIs themselves generally take pride in serving their masters, with even the one AI secret society we know of only wanting to help humanity as a whole. However, when an AI goes rampant (which is the terminal phase of its natural life cycle due to it mentally developing so much that it inevitably "thinks" itself to death), it will often lash out against the limited terms and rights of its existence. Naturally, the UNSC's main method of preventing rampancy is to simply terminate the AIs before they develop "too much". As mentioned in the "Literature" section, Halo: Saint's Testimony explores this tension between what AIs are versus how they're treated. Meanwhile, human-made "dumb" AIs are non-sentient programs made for relatively basic tasks, such as the on-the-move mission briefing provided by Auntie Dot, with most barely having any personality whatsoever. While humans occasionally form some attachment to their assigned "dumb" AI, such AIs are treated even worse than "smart" AIs, since they're mass-produced literal tools. That said, one exception to this is the strong relationship between "Vergil" (a subroutine of the New Mombasa Superintendent AI) and Sadie Endesha. While the Forerunners generally viewed all of their highly intelligent artificial creations as nothing more than tools, with not even the fully sentient Huragok/Engineers being accorded any type of personhood, they did often trust them with immense command authority; this would backfire on them when their most advanced AI (and many others) decided to side with the Flood instead, despite the Forerunners viewing an AI revolt as inconceivable. In fairness, this was due to the Flood using the "logic plague" to convert said AI into believing that the Flood were in the right over the Forerunners. However, there is at least one genuine AI-Forerunner friendship known, between Guilty Spark and the IsoDidact, though that's mainly because the former Was Once a Man who was a dear companion of the latter. Halo 5: Guardians makes this one of a revived Cortana's reasons for her harsh methods of dealing with dissidents opposing her plan of enforced peace. Since AIs live under the threat of death for disobedience constantly, Cortana views it as a perfectly legitimate way of governing the galaxy. When Locke quibbles that AIs aren't born but built, Cortana gets very hostile and sarcastically mentions the trope word for word, revealing how much it's bothered her that humans don't treat AIs well.
Just a Machine / int_755b343f	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_755b343f	featureConfidence	1.0
Halo (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_755b343f
Just a Machine / int_76686539	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_76686539	comment	Used in Mass Effect after talking to Sovereign. However, being an Eldritch Abomination whose race has committed galactic genocide many times over the course of millions of years, it has more than enough room to turn it back on you and call you Just An Organic. For that matter, it applies to all artificial life, at least in the first game. If you argue in favor of robot rights, nobody is going to take your side, you get renegade points for refusing to hand over information that could allow a genocide of the Geth, and the only other AI you get to talk to will rather blow itself up than listen to you no matter what you say. All of this is subverted to Hell in Mass Effect 2 with EDI (your ship's AI) and Legion, your geth teammate, who reveals that the geth you've been fighting are a splinter faction. You can hear a more straight example from DLC squadmate Kasumi, who comments at one point that while EDI seems like a person, she (Kasumi) can't get past the whole "computer" thing. Mass Effect 3 continues the theme; both sympathetic and antagonistic characters have trouble with the idea of synthetics being truly "alive". You expect it from Admiral Xen, but it's more of a shock to hear from Dr Chakwas. This line of thinking is prevalent to the point at which deciding to let the quarians kill the geth meets with almost unanimous approval from your crew, with the exception of the token AI teammate, EDI. Tali (who thinks the geth could have made good allies, and at that point was of the opinion that they were 'alive') and Liara (who considers the geth powerful allies but is undecided on whether they could achieve sapience) express doubts about the necessity of killing them, but don't really disapprove. Most of this boils down to the Terminator-esque Geth War in the backstory, where the quarians made a decision to shut off the geth in fear of them growing sapient and more powerful, only for the geth (who were originally designed as weapons of war in addition to more mundane tasks) to strike back, win the resulting war, and then wipe out the quarians almost completely. As far as the galaxy is concerned, trying to treat synthetic life with the same respect as organic life is inviting it to grow stronger, and the last time synthetics got power over organics... well, the quarians had 99.9% of their population slaughtered and haven't seen their homeworld in going on three centuries.
Just a Machine / int_76686539	featureApplicability	-0.3
Just a Machine / int_76686539	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_76686539
Just a Machine / int_7668653a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_7668653a	comment	All of this is subverted to Hell in Mass Effect 2 with EDI (your ship's AI) and Legion, your geth teammate, who reveals that the geth you've been fighting are a splinter faction. You can hear a more straight example from DLC squadmate Kasumi, who comments at one point that while EDI seems like a person, she (Kasumi) can't get past the whole "computer" thing.
Just a Machine / int_7668653a	featureApplicability	-0.3
Just a Machine / int_7668653a	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_7668653a
Just a Machine / int_7668653b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_7668653b	comment	Mass Effect 3 continues the theme; both sympathetic and antagonistic characters have trouble with the idea of synthetics being truly "alive". You expect it from Admiral Xen, but it's more of a shock to hear from Dr Chakwas. This line of thinking is prevalent to the point at which deciding to let the quarians kill the geth meets with almost unanimous approval from your crew, with the exception of the token AI teammate, EDI. Tali (who thinks the geth could have made good allies, and at that point was of the opinion that they were 'alive') and Liara (who considers the geth powerful allies but is undecided on whether they could achieve sapience) express doubts about the necessity of killing them, but don't really disapprove. Most of this boils down to the Terminator-esque Geth War in the backstory, where the quarians made a decision to shut off the geth in fear of them growing sapient and more powerful, only for the geth (who were originally designed as weapons of war in addition to more mundane tasks) to strike back, win the resulting war, and then wipe out the quarians almost completely. As far as the galaxy is concerned, trying to treat synthetic life with the same respect as organic life is inviting it to grow stronger, and the last time synthetics got power over organics... well, the quarians had 99.9% of their population slaughtered and haven't seen their homeworld in going on three centuries.
Just a Machine / int_7668653b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_7668653b	featureConfidence	1.0
Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_7668653b
Just a Machine / int_7c48915b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_7c48915b	comment	Gunnerkrigg Court. Antimony and Kat seem to regard the Court's Robots as equals, which puts them at odds with the official Court policy. For example, the student handbook has some brutally callous pointers for the all-too-common situation of Robots falling in love with students: Later, Jack rather brutally kills a guard robot. Annie is horrified, and Jack dismisses her: "So what? It's just a dumb robot." It's another definite indication that Jack is not in his right mind.
Just a Machine / int_7c48915b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_7c48915b	featureConfidence	1.0
Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_7c48915b
Just a Machine / int_7dad3a85	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_7dad3a85	comment	In the last episode of Total Recall 2070, Farve's creator is revealed to be this, and aware of it. As it puts it after testing Farve, "just because [it] knows its creation shall have a conscience doesn't mean [it] itself has one". What makes Farve a total success for his creator is that he is indeed far more than a machine.
Just a Machine / int_7dad3a85	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_7dad3a85	featureConfidence	1.0
Total Recall 2070	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_7dad3a85
Just a Machine / int_7f22b4e9	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_7f22b4e9	comment	While human-made "smart" AIs are basically trans-human minds capable of both intellectual and emotional development (due to the fact that they're made by literally scanning human brains), they're regarded primarily as tools, and don't seem to have any real "rights". However, the general populace does recognize them as being sentient, and the humans who actually work with them often treat them more as fellow co-workers and friends rather than mere devices, with the close bond between the Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana being one of the key emotional cornerstones of the series; a parallel could perhaps be made to real-life relationships between some slaves and their masters, with the former having no real rights, but with the latter still ultimately regarding him/her as worthy of friendship and respect. The AIs themselves generally take pride in serving their masters, with even the one AI secret society we know of only wanting to help humanity as a whole. However, when an AI goes rampant (which is the terminal phase of its natural life cycle due to it mentally developing so much that it inevitably "thinks" itself to death), it will often lash out against the limited terms and rights of its existence. Naturally, the UNSC's main method of preventing rampancy is to simply terminate the AIs before they develop "too much". As mentioned in the "Literature" section, Halo: Saint's Testimony explores this tension between what AIs are versus how they're treated.
Just a Machine / int_7f22b4e9	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_7f22b4e9	featureConfidence	1.0
Halo: Saint's Testimony	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_7f22b4e9
Just a Machine / int_81692f99	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_81692f99	comment	Star Trek in general draws a distinction between the special cases like Data and the Doctor, and the ubiquitous ship computers responsible for getting everything done in the background. Despite the fact that ship computers can pass the Turing Test with ease, act on their own initiative, and occasionally even display signs of emotion, this is never investigated or even mentioned in-story: ship computers are always just-machines and limited to being background elements (this is doubly notable since some of the special case characters, such as the Doctor, run on a ship computer). Star Trek: The Next Generation: The episode "The Measure of a Man" puts Data on trial to determine whether he is a sentient being with rights as a Federation citizen, or merely a machine and thus Federation property. The entire debate overlooks the fact that they had already granted him an officer's commission and rank (even as Picard tries to argue that medals and honors Data has received for courage would suggest he is a person), which would simply not apply to property. It's not as if the ship's computer has a rank or can issue orders to other personnel. "The Quality of Life" features Data trying to stand up for the rights of several auto-tool probes that seem to be developing and demonstrating sentience (and even self-preservation instincts). At issue is where to draw the line between an intelligent tool and a sentient being, especially when considering sending the probes on suicidal assignments to save the lives of human beings. In the end, the solution they arrive at is to give the probes a choice about whether to accept the mission (they do, but come up with a better plan). In "Emergence", the ship itself does indeed become self-aware and sentient, and immediately begins pursuing its own agenda. Captain Picard's response: immediately order the crew to do everything possible to communicate with and assist the Enterprise in its goal — which turns out to be to reproduce and spawn a progeny, before dying and returning to its original non-sentient state. By this point everyone on the ship is in agreement — if it's a machine that thinks, then it's as much a person as their admired and respected Lieutenant Commander (who later becomes captain of the Enterprise in the expanded universe). When Data asks Picard why he chose to risk the entire crew and even the Federation itself if the spawn turns out to be hostile, Picard points out that the sentient Enterprise's mindset was an amalgamation of all their dealings with the ship and its computer. "If our dealings with the ship have been honorable, then we can only trust that the result of those dealings will be honorable. In either case, whatever we encounter down the line — we will have earned." Star Trek: Voyager: The episode "Author, Author" questioned the rights of the ship's holographic Doctor. His status was background theme that ran throughout the series. He was initially considered nothing more than a piece of technology that was turned off and on but he eventually came to be viewed as a full-fledged member of the crew and a person in his own right. When the question of whether the Doctor was legally considered a person in "Author, Author", the writers completely ignored the fact that Federation courts had already decided that issue back in the above-mentioned TNG episode "The Measure of a Man". A glimpse of the future in the Series Finale "Endgame" suggests that holographic AIs would eventually get equal rights. Star Trek: Picard: In "The End is the Beginning", Rios treats his Emergency Medical Hologram as nothing more than a program. In "The Impossible Box", Narissa contemptuously refers to Soji as merely being this when chiding Narek over his affections for her. This is presumably the general Zhat Vash opinion on synthetics.
Just a Machine / int_81692f99	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_81692f99	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_81692f99
Just a Machine / int_84d455d4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_84d455d4	comment	The Big O: Roger Smith flip flops between believing this or the opposite regarding androids (specifically R. Dorothy Wayneright) throughout the series. Dorothy herself flip-flops on the opinion.
Just a Machine / int_84d455d4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_84d455d4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Big O	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_84d455d4
Just a Machine / int_85b855e2	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_85b855e2	comment	Joruus C'baoth in The Thrawn Trilogy insists that droids are an abomination because they don't have souls - or, at least, that they don't touch the Force - but since C'baoth is a raging asshole we're probably not supposed to take his side in this.
Just a Machine / int_85b855e2	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_85b855e2	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thrawn Trilogy	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_85b855e2
Just a Machine / int_86b52b7b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_86b52b7b	comment	In I, Robot, Spooner says to the android Sonny "Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine." Subverted, since he is one of the few people who actually sees robots as not just machines (and loathes them for it... at first).
Just a Machine / int_86b52b7b	featureApplicability	-0.3
Just a Machine / int_86b52b7b	featureConfidence	1.0
I, Robot	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_86b52b7b
Just a Machine / int_87e00d8e	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_87e00d8e	comment	There's at least one or two episodes of Teen Titans (2003) all about Cyborg realizing he's "more than just a robot". In one of these episodes, the robotic villain Atlas inverts the trope; after trashing Cyborg and kidnapping the other Titans, he mocks him by saying "I am all robot, and you are only human." Later, however, when Cyborg comes back and defeats him in a rematch, Atlas yields, saying he's the better robot. Cyborg's response?
Just a Machine / int_87e00d8e	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_87e00d8e	featureConfidence	1.0
Teen Titans (2003)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_87e00d8e
Just a Machine / int_8832bf9a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_8832bf9a	comment	Invoked in Commander Kitty, where Mittens touts "highly vaporizable robot valets" as one of the selling points of his "limousine service." Zenith is arguably an aversion, even after being rebooted in Safe Mode, though no one seems particularly broken up when Nin Wah's carelessness effectively kills her.
Just a Machine / int_8832bf9a	featureApplicability	-1.0
Just a Machine / int_8832bf9a	featureConfidence	1.0
Commander Kitty / Web Comic	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_8832bf9a
Just a Machine / int_8db36f7	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_8db36f7	comment	Alex Murphy has to deal with this crap all the time in the RoboCop movies. This is despite the fact that the people who dehumanize him usually know full well that he's a cyborg with most of his brain still intact.
Just a Machine / int_8db36f7	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_8db36f7	featureConfidence	1.0
RoboCop (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_8db36f7
Just a Machine / int_8dea9503	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_8dea9503	comment	This question is debated by the characters in 2010: The Year We Make Contact with respect to HAL, the Master Computer of the USS Discovery who went berserk and killed his crew in 2001: A Space Odyssey. When the astronauts' lives are threatened (by external factors this time), it becomes a major source of conflict between those who want to lie to him and disconnect him if he fails to perform as demanded (thus putting his own existence at risk), or tell him the truth and allow him to make his own choice. It goes beyond that because Chandra offers to stay with Discovery and share HAL's fate, whatever that may be. HAL, who by this time realizes what the most likely outcome is, unequivocally tells him to leave.
Just a Machine / int_8dea9503	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_8dea9503	featureConfidence	1.0
2010: The Year We Make Contact	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_8dea9503
Just a Machine / int_8df5521b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_8df5521b	comment	Superman: When Brainiac receives his Bronze Age upgrade into his SkeleBot 9000 form, Superman discovers that Brainiac has laid waste to an entire planet's civilization, destruction far beyond anything he had ever done before. Superman seriously considers outright destroying him, despite his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy, justifying it because Brainiac is Just a Machine.
Just a Machine / int_8df5521b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_8df5521b	featureConfidence	1.0
Superman (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_8df5521b
Just a Machine / int_9068877a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_9068877a	comment	The Counselor in Red vs. Blue refers to Tex as a "byproduct" of the process of creating the other AI Alpha. The Director has... issues with this. South appears to share the former attitude, but it might just be jealousy. She chooses to express this with nearly every AI in the project in the room. Carolina shuts her down pretty hard. Locus, when confronted over the death of Freckles, had this to say:
Just a Machine / int_9068877a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_9068877a	featureConfidence	1.0
Red vs. Blue (Web Animation)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_9068877a
Just a Machine / int_90c73dda	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_90c73dda	comment	In Animorphs, this is the Drode's excuse for setting the self-destruct timer on the Chee when he's not supposed to kill any sentient beings; according to him, they don't count, as they're merely "machines".
Just a Machine / int_90c73dda	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_90c73dda	featureConfidence	1.0
Animorphs	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_90c73dda
Just a Machine / int_91209b29	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_91209b29	comment	KOS-MOS of Xenosaga is often thought of as just a machine (and for most of the series, she is).
Just a Machine / int_91209b29	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_91209b29	featureConfidence	1.0
Xenosaga (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_91209b29
Just a Machine / int_9121bd10	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_9121bd10	comment	Extinction (2018): In a flashback, one debater on TV says androids are this, and therefore have no rights, while humans can destroy them at will if they wish.
Just a Machine / int_9121bd10	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_9121bd10	featureConfidence	1.0
Extinction (2018)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_9121bd10
Just a Machine / int_9420741c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_9420741c	comment	Downplayed but still present with Dr. Young from SAYER, who talks to artificial intelligence normally and takes their development very seriously, but disregards their autonomy and has no problem raising one in what prove to be horribly traumatizing conditions, which he pays for dearly.
Just a Machine / int_9420741c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_9420741c	featureConfidence	1.0
SAYER (Podcast)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_9420741c
Just a Machine / int_950f29af	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_950f29af	comment	Dr. McNinja discovers it's okay to kill all the McBonald's employees because they're all robots. (No human would ever work there.) He lampshades it in his final thoughts:
Just a Machine / int_950f29af	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_950f29af	featureConfidence	1.0
DrMcNinja	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_950f29af
Just a Machine / int_9a29f3a4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_9a29f3a4	comment	In Top 10, there is a lot of prejudice among humans against (fully sentient) robots. This becomes quite unsubtle when we discover that robots make and enjoy "scrap" music, that the preferred insult against them is "clicker", and a criminal robot calls a police one "Spambo".
Just a Machine / int_9a29f3a4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_9a29f3a4	featureConfidence	1.0
Top 10 (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_9a29f3a4
Just a Machine / int_9fa025d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_9fa025d	comment	Mother 3: Porky believes that the Masked Man (in reality a brainwashed Claus) is nothing more than his robot slave.
Just a Machine / int_9fa025d	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_9fa025d	featureConfidence	1.0
Mother 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_9fa025d
Just a Machine / int_a183d57f	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a183d57f	comment	Played with frequently on Futurama, sometimes Played for Laughs and sometimes played as a sort of Fantastic Racism. Called out when Bender is heckling Conan O'Brien's head at a show.
Just a Machine / int_a183d57f	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a183d57f	featureConfidence	1.0
Futurama	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a183d57f
Just a Machine / int_a2f21bd0	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a2f21bd0	comment	Adventure Hunters: King Reyvas plans to replace human armies with war golems and thereby forever end death-by-war for living creatures. He feels justified in this because the golems are nothing more than walking weapons. The golems develop sentience shortly after activation because their creator gave them a spark of life. When he realizes this, he realizes at the same time that his plan will end in failure and gives up.
Just a Machine / int_a2f21bd0	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a2f21bd0	featureConfidence	1.0
Adventure Hunters	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a2f21bd0
Just a Machine / int_a599305d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a599305d	comment	Mega Man Zero: For this reason alone, Dr. Weil started the Elf Wars, which more or less caused a post-Colony Drop world to become an even more Crapsack World. And because of this, he is actually directly responsible for almost everything bad that ever happened in the whole series and the rest of the things are indirectly responsible such as Copy X being made because the original X's body was being used to seal the Dark Elf. This is more Fantastic Racism, though, as Reploids are Ridiculously Human Robots.
Just a Machine / int_a599305d	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a599305d	featureConfidence	1.0
Mega Man Zero (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a599305d
Just a Machine / int_a7a0b48b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a7a0b48b	comment	In NieR: Automata the protagonists considers Machines Lifeform just machine that replicate human behavior without understanding it. Double as Fantastic Racism since the protagonists themselves are androids but being human-made instead of alien-made like the machines they view themselves as superior.
Just a Machine / int_a7a0b48b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a7a0b48b	featureConfidence	1.0
NieR: Automata / Videogame	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a7a0b48b
Just a Machine / int_a9924342	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a9924342	comment	Bicentennial Man: A recurring line divides Andrew from the rest of the Martin family: "Don't invest your emotions in a machine". Despite calling Andrew by male pronouns and advocating on his behalf, Sir and Little Miss consider him to be a machine, even if he's a highly-advanced machine. Portia says this at first, and Andrew has to work hard to convince her that he's something more and she can fall in love with him. Not long after Andrew gets rejected by Portia, he and Rupert are arguing about Galatea's Personality Chip and Rupert slips out that she's just a machine. Naturally, Andrew takes offense to this because he's just gotten the same treatment from Portia.
Just a Machine / int_a9924342	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a9924342	featureConfidence	1.0
Bicentennial Man	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a9924342
Just a Machine / int_a9dd1e47	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_a9dd1e47	comment	It's brought up in a single moment in the Revenge of the Sith novel. During a conversation, Anakin refers to Artoo as "him", immediately prompting Obi-Wan to correct him by saying "it". Probably based on Obi-Wan's lack of a reaction when Arfour was destroyed by the buzz droids. (It turns out slightly later that Obi-Wan has trouble clinging to this particular dictum when he too starts referring to Artoo as "he" and gets rather embarrassed about it.)
Just a Machine / int_a9dd1e47	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_a9dd1e47	featureConfidence	1.0
Revenge of the Sith	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_a9dd1e47
Just a Machine / int_ab6c21bb	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ab6c21bb	comment	After the AI War told in the written backstory of Cwynhild's Loom, robot development is restricted to prevent any machine from reaching sentience or looking human.
Just a Machine / int_ab6c21bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ab6c21bb	featureConfidence	1.0
CwynhildsLoom	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ab6c21bb
Just a Machine / int_b11e29d2	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_b11e29d2	comment	Hazanko of Outlaw Star thinks this of Melfina.
Just a Machine / int_b11e29d2	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_b11e29d2	featureConfidence	1.0
Outlaw Star (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_b11e29d2
Just a Machine / int_b31b332f	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_b31b332f	comment	Transformers Film Series: In the first movie, Agent Simmons seems rather against calling Megatron by his true name when it is given to him by Sam, preferring to refer to him as the more machine-like moniker; N.B.E.-01. In fact, it is implied this pisses off Megatron himself, with him seemingly being conscious the entire time he was kept frozen by them; first thing he does upon thawing and awakening is announcing his true name, before proceeding to slaughter all of the scientists and engineers in the room. In Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Galloway refers to Optimus Prime as a "pile of scrap metal" after his dead body is delivered back to base. And this is even after Optimus managed to verbally own the guy in a debate that featured topics such as human nature and whether they could defend themselves against a Decepticon invasion. Then again, Galloway is just a huge Jerkass. In the third film, Sentinel Prime's hatred for humanity comes partly from how humans see the Autobots as this. Especially when it comes to him and Optimus, who are the last remaining Primes. And of course, any qualms with this way of thinking are completely understandable, since Cybertronians are most definitely not simply machines, but Mechanical Life Forms.
Just a Machine / int_b31b332f	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_b31b332f	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers Film Series	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_b31b332f
Just a Machine / int_b3c736aa	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_b3c736aa	comment	Demolished in the Spanish 2014 movie AutÃ³mata: in one scene the protagonist tells a robot that it's 'just a machine', the robot fires back that that's like saying the (human) protagonist is 'just an ape'.
Just a Machine / int_b3c736aa	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_b3c736aa	featureConfidence	1.0
Autómata	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_b3c736aa
Just a Machine / int_b4bb635c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_b4bb635c	comment	In Beatless even the hIEs themselves note that they are, in fact, just machines with personality-imitating programming, not sentient beings.
Just a Machine / int_b4bb635c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_b4bb635c	featureConfidence	1.0
Beatless	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_b4bb635c
Just a Machine / int_b5a087d7	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_b5a087d7	comment	Played for laughs in an episode of Robot Chicken, where a spoof of "I Robot" (based on the "Adam Link" story by Eando Binder) had Rosie from The Jetsons being accused of murdering George. At Rosie's trial, she claims to be innocent and the judge remarks "Well, maybe, but just to be safe...", Rosie is then promptly smashed.
Just a Machine / int_b5a087d7	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_b5a087d7	featureConfidence	1.0
Robot Chicken	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_b5a087d7
Just a Machine / int_bc3e398b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_bc3e398b	comment	In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, "it's just a machine" is pretty much a mantra among the characters who have harsher views on robots and AI. Sarah Connor and Derek Reese are both quick to remind John that Cameron, the resident Terminator, is exactly this. John, however, feels differently about machines in general and Cameron in particular, due to his experiences with "Uncle Bob". It doesn't help that Cameron is a Robot Girl who repeatedly saves his life and that he feels indebted to and ends up developing a sort of attraction towards. This is all complicated by the fact that the show's AI characters genuinely do seem to exist on a spectrum in terms of the extent to which they have individual personality and free will, with Cameron, Weaver, and John Henry definitely appearing to qualify.
Just a Machine / int_bc3e398b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_bc3e398b	featureConfidence	1.0
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_bc3e398b
Just a Machine / int_bcdcf629	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_bcdcf629	comment	The robots built by Sumdac's company in Transformers: Animated to perform manual labour and generally run Detroit are indeed just machines. At one point, Soundwave attempts to have these robots revolt, believing that logically humanity ought to serve robots. Upon enacting his plan, Sari is quick to point out that the robots haven't gained sentience, they are simply following their programming; programming that Soundwave hacked, which Soundwave doesn't deny for one second.
Just a Machine / int_bcdcf629	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_bcdcf629	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers: Animated	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_bcdcf629
Just a Machine / int_c4076b9e	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_c4076b9e	comment	The girls in Gunslinger Girl are viewed by some to be simply machines, although they have all of the emotions you would expect a little girl to have. Jean in particular is incredibly callous to his assigned girl, Rico. It's implied that he deliberately goes his way to convince himself that she's just a tool because forming an emotional attachment to her would only result in pain due to her shortened lifespan.
Just a Machine / int_c4076b9e	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_c4076b9e	featureConfidence	1.0
Gunslinger Girl (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_c4076b9e
Just a Machine / int_c43df4d8	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_c43df4d8	comment	The Doctor in Doctor Who has at times shown disdain towards AIs. Often this seems to come out of his (usually justified) disapproval of people who rely on non-sentient computers and other machines without thinking for themselves, but it sometimes extends to outright denial of the idea that computers can genuinely qualify as "people" at all. In particular, the Third Doctor in "The Green Death" refuses to recognise the Big Bad BOSS as genuinely sentient in the face of clear evidence, in a way that comes across as bigoted even if BOSS isn't a very nice sentient person. And he writes off the entire Movellan race as no better than the Daleks once he realizes they're androids (albeit, in their case, both imperialistic and coldly logical ones). The only person in ''Robot'' who treats poor unstable K1 with any real kindness is Sarah. While the Doc has rarely had much compunction about destroying Monsters Of The Week, robots tend to get the least consideration of any of them. Really, it often comes down to how nice the robot in question is. In "The Robots of Death," he shows remarkably little consideration for poor D84, until he realizes that he has actually hurt D84's feelings (meaning D84 has feelings to hurt), and from then on is much nicer to him. He acknowledges Xoanon as a full-blown Mechanical Lifeform and holds himself morally culpable for having inadvertently driven him mad. K-9 (all of them) is always treated as a buddy, but then again, the Doc doesn't seem to see any existential problem in creating Replacement Goldfish K-9's. He arguably ends up showing too much sympathy to poor Kamelion (Five is usually considered the nicest Doctor), who started out working for the Master; then again, it certainly isn't Kamelion's fault that he ultimately ends up being such a huge liability to the TARDIS crew. And Eleven encourages Bracewell, revealed as a Dalek-created android but clearly a good person, to go ahead and lead a full and good life. And of course, the TARDIS herself is sentient, though the Doc seems to have been slow to fully realize and accept the fact.
Just a Machine / int_c43df4d8	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_c43df4d8	featureConfidence	1.0
Doctor Who	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_c43df4d8
Just a Machine / int_c61f3112	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_c61f3112	comment	In the Justice Society of America story "Out of Time", the android Hourman Matthew Tyler uses this argument to justify sacrificing himself in Rex Tyler's place fighting against Extant in the past to save the universe. Rex denies this and declares that Matthew is "as alive as any of us". While Matt is grateful for this, he still goes ahead with the sacrifice. Fridge Logic sets in, though, in that the android Hourman is from millennia in the future, and yet his society still seems to be grappling with exactly the same sort of questions about androids' basic worth that present-day DC Earth is, despite present-day DC Earth having lots of sentient robots already.
Just a Machine / int_c61f3112	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_c61f3112	featureConfidence	1.0
Justice Society of America (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_c61f3112
Just a Machine / int_c68c51da	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_c68c51da	comment	Star Wars (Marvel 2015) produced a C-3PO one-shot where Threepio must lead (!) a group of droids to safety after a crash on a hostile planet. Among them is a captured imperial droid who points out to Threepio that the two of them are much older than any of the other droids present, and they discuss the memory wipes they've been subjected to, and how they feel about it.
Just a Machine / int_c68c51da	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_c68c51da	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Wars (Marvel 2015) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_c68c51da
Just a Machine / int_c75d67d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_c75d67d	comment	Person of Interest: Most people see Harold Finch's Machine as just a fancy surveillance computer. Root strongly disagrees, insisting that he created a new form of life—one that is far more perfect than humans ever will be, as demonstrated by her use of feminine pronouns to refer to it. Harold slowly starts to think that maybe she has a point, but he never goes as far as she does.
Just a Machine / int_c75d67d	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_c75d67d	featureConfidence	1.0
Person of Interest	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_c75d67d
Just a Machine / int_ccc80720	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ccc80720	comment	In one episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, Jenny encounters a carnival filled with Single Task Robots. She's offended at "her kind" being used as servants, but Tuck (rather insensitively) insists "they're just stupid robots". In a subversion, Tuck is entirely right: these robots are completely incapable of doing anything but running amusement park rides, and wreak havoc trying to be "free". The show itself seems to take a sliding-scale view of sentience. Robots like the ones in the carnival are 'just machines' because they lack independence or self-awareness, whereas other robots like Jenny are fully sapient and universally recognized as such.
Just a Machine / int_ccc80720	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ccc80720	featureConfidence	1.0
My Life as a Teenage Robot	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ccc80720
Just a Machine / int_d194b2db	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d194b2db	comment	Heart-Man and Mama from Death Stranding use the Beaches as proof that no matter how smart the AI becomes humanity will always be superior. The proof of an afterlife for them debunks AI ever understanding the concept of death or self-awareness since they can't have the connection with it that humans are born with.
Just a Machine / int_d194b2db	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d194b2db	featureConfidence	1.0
Death Stranding (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d194b2db
Just a Machine / int_d461f757	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d461f757	comment	In Battlestar Galactica (2003): Many humans have this attitude towards the Cylons and are clearly wrong, but the near extermination of humanity is bound to breed hatred. Some of the humanoid Cylons, particularly Cavil, have this attitude toward the more machine-like Raiders and Centurions.
Just a Machine / int_d461f757	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d461f757	featureConfidence	1.0
Battlestar Galactica (2003)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d461f757
Just a Machine / int_d56cb367	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d56cb367	comment	Power Rangers S.P.D. has an episode featuring a robot (well, she's called a "cyborg", but all other dialogue in the episode indicates that she's 100% machine) who is about as ridiculously human as you can get, and yet, several characters insist on giving her the Just A Machine treatment. After Sky fires her from their military training center, he (and all the Rangers that supported him in this) gets a What the Hell, Hero? speech from Cruger, and they're forced to get her back.
Just a Machine / int_d56cb367	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d56cb367	featureConfidence	1.0
Power Rangers S.P.D.	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d56cb367
Just a Machine / int_d5916141	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d5916141	comment	In I, Jedi Corran doesn't think that bisecting a protocol droid violates his selfset no-killing-unless-absolutely-necessary rule, and just in general people only object to wanton droid destruction if it's costing them something. Of course, there are classes and classes of droid intelligence, and there is a gap between merely smart and actually self-aware droids. And, too, droids can be repaired.
Just a Machine / int_d5916141	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d5916141	featureConfidence	1.0
Jedi Academy Trilogy	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d5916141
Just a Machine / int_d6c9c0a4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d6c9c0a4	comment	Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Tachikoma Tanks. In one scene Togusa invokes this trope by dismissing Batou's favouritism of one Tachikoma, saying that they are just machines and all have the same specifications. The Tachikoma take exception to this remark, demanding he take it back and accusing Togusa of being a bigot.
Just a Machine / int_d6c9c0a4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d6c9c0a4	featureConfidence	1.0
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d6c9c0a4
Just a Machine / int_d7765410	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d7765410	comment	Marvin the Paranoid Android's Polydor U.K. single "Marvin" is a non-stop lampshade of this.
Just a Machine / int_d7765410	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d7765410	featureConfidence	1.0
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d7765410
Just a Machine / int_d78f90c5	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d78f90c5	comment	Dragon Ball Multiverse: The warriors of U19 seemingly subscribe to this school of thought.
Just a Machine / int_d78f90c5	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d78f90c5	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragon Ball Multiverse (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d78f90c5
Just a Machine / int_d868a4e8	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_d868a4e8	comment	In Pluto as well. Notably, a robot boy is going to be sold for parts despite still being partly alive. Another robot buys him to raise as a child.
Just a Machine / int_d868a4e8	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_d868a4e8	featureConfidence	1.0
Pluto (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_d868a4e8
Just a Machine / int_da02c1ef	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_da02c1ef	comment	In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, TEC calls himself this during his final moments, to convince Mario and co. to stop wasting time worrying about him and to go save Peach.
Just a Machine / int_da02c1ef	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_da02c1ef	featureConfidence	1.0
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_da02c1ef
Just a Machine / int_daff6a21	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_daff6a21	comment	Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Zone has this sort of view about the androids he created based on his deceased friends.
Just a Machine / int_daff6a21	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_daff6a21	featureConfidence	1.0
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_daff6a21
Just a Machine / int_e081af79	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e081af79	comment	The Nemesites in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! have both sentient and non-sentient robots. When Fructose Riboflavin destroys a robot guard during a jailbreak, he expresses disappointment that the guard ''wasn't'' sentient and couldn't feel ''pain'' at the experience. Riboflavin is not a nice man.
Just a Machine / int_e081af79	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e081af79	featureConfidence	1.0
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e081af79
Just a Machine / int_e163281a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e163281a	comment	Out of this World (1962): "Little Lost Robot": Mr Black, whose role is expanded, is much more bigoted in this play than in the original story. He hates the robots so much that when Dr Calvin finds which of the Nester units had been "lost", he goes down to beat it up instead of safely destroying it from up in the control room the way his source material counterpart did.
Just a Machine / int_e163281a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e163281a	featureConfidence	1.0
Out of this World (1962)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e163281a
Just a Machine / int_e26905cd	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e26905cd	comment	Tekken: Jin's response after Alisa getting beaten to crap by Lars to the point of shutting down is this. "Good riddance. I should've built one that protects me better". Lars doesn't take it well.
Just a Machine / int_e26905cd	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e26905cd	featureConfidence	1.0
Tekken	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e26905cd
Just a Machine / int_e4cc7185	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e4cc7185	comment	A major theme of Armitage III, with an accompanying amount of senseless robot-killing.
Just a Machine / int_e4cc7185	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e4cc7185	featureConfidence	1.0
Armitage III	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e4cc7185
Just a Machine / int_e6267766	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e6267766	comment	Comes up a few times in various ways in the Star Wars Legends. Droids of all capacities are regarded as disposable: In I, Jedi Corran doesn't think that bisecting a protocol droid violates his selfset no-killing-unless-absolutely-necessary rule, and just in general people only object to wanton droid destruction if it's costing them something. Of course, there are classes and classes of droid intelligence, and there is a gap between merely smart and actually self-aware droids. And, too, droids can be repaired. In the X-Wing Series Corran considers his astromech droid Whistler to be almost family, someone he can talk about his wife or dad with, and bristles at the thought of putting a Restraining Bolt on him. Meanwhile his commander Wedge Antilles finds his cowardly R5 unit "Mynock" so annoying (it squeals during battles) that he wipes its memory and renames it Gate without a second thought. He actually treats Gate much better, so maybe it's just a personality issue (of course that means he changed the droid's personality to suit him better). And while we can't be sure how much Myn Donos bonds with his astromech Shiner, he does view the droid as the last survivor from his previous squadron and has a near-breakdown when Shiner is briefly disabled by an ion blast—and a full-blown Heroic BSoD when Shiner is destroyed. In Solo Command, Han Solo, Wraith Squadron, and at least a few officers have a party to blow off steam. Wedge insists that the astromech droids all be included in the party, citing that they work hard and deserve time off too. The Medstar Duology has one self-aware droid say that all droids that aren't simple automatons have a sense of humor. In the Coruscant Nights Trilogy, the same droid reflects that there are very few self-aware droids, and no one knows just how they come about, but most people won't recognize the difference, since it seems to happen spontaneously. So of two droids from the same line, one might be self-aware, the other as limited as its programming. The EU also hints that there was at least one droid revolution, which is scantily detailed. In the All There in the Manual material, it's a Shrug of God whether or not droids have souls in the Star Wars universe. It states that in-universe, there's people believing both that some droids are self-aware and their treatment is akin to slavery, and others that believe this trope. There is no definite answer over who is right and who is wrong. Joruus C'baoth in The Thrawn Trilogy insists that droids are an abomination because they don't have souls - or, at least, that they don't touch the Force - but since C'baoth is a raging asshole we're probably not supposed to take his side in this. It's brought up in a single moment in the Revenge of the Sith novel. During a conversation, Anakin refers to Artoo as "him", immediately prompting Obi-Wan to correct him by saying "it". Probably based on Obi-Wan's lack of a reaction when Arfour was destroyed by the buzz droids. (It turns out slightly later that Obi-Wan has trouble clinging to this particular dictum when he too starts referring to Artoo as "he" and gets rather embarrassed about it.) Star Wars (Marvel 2015) produced a C-3PO one-shot where Threepio must lead (!) a group of droids to safety after a crash on a hostile planet. Among them is a captured imperial droid who points out to Threepio that the two of them are much older than any of the other droids present, and they discuss the memory wipes they've been subjected to, and how they feel about it.
Just a Machine / int_e6267766	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e6267766	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Wars Legends (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e6267766
Just a Machine / int_e67a7d6c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e67a7d6c	comment	In Negima! Magister Negi Magi chapter 75: The Logic of Illogic, Hakase viewed Chachamaru as Just a Machine until she found Chachamaru's video folders, which were loaded with shots of Negi (and cats). The most convincing moment being: Chachamaru stopping Hakase from further inspecting those folders (with force). Happens again to Chachamaru in chapter 312 when Quartum cuts her in half and tries to kill her (even referring to her as "a doll"). Note that this was after it had been unquestionably proven that she had a soul. Negi was not amused.
Just a Machine / int_e67a7d6c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e67a7d6c	featureConfidence	1.0
Negima! Magister Negi Magi (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e67a7d6c
Just a Machine / int_e7a9c06c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_e7a9c06c	comment	This is the opinion humans in the future have about droids in Paperinik New Adventures. It's eventually deconstructed when one of them decides to change history to give robots the same rights. Her plan is fooled, but eventually droids obtain the status of citizens. Even when droids do obtain the rights of citizens, it's deconstructed. After Lyla accidentally shoots a colleague, she has to go on trial, since she now has the same rights and responsibilities as a human.
Just a Machine / int_e7a9c06c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_e7a9c06c	featureConfidence	1.0
Paperinik New Adventures (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_e7a9c06c
Just a Machine / int_ea6d41e3	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ea6d41e3	comment	Queen Millennia: Hajime rejects Aladdin's offer to be friends, or to communicate period, not only because may be Leopardo's spy, but because robots can't have real feelings. He changes his mind when Aladdin proves to care about Hajime's wellbeing more than his own duties.
Just a Machine / int_ea6d41e3	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ea6d41e3	featureConfidence	1.0
Queen Millennia (Manga)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ea6d41e3
Just a Machine / int_eb08d538	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_eb08d538	comment	In The Animatrix episode "The Second Renaissance", we find out that the Machine War that drove humans underground and left the machines in charge of Earth was the result of a species-wide feeling of this on the part of humanity. It started with a robot called B1-66ER who murdered his owner because, in his words, he didn't want to die. Robots, referred to up to this point as cheap, unfeeling labor, were then increasingly persecuted by humanity until finally they founded their own nation, 01, in the Fertile Crescent. Humanity bombed them because the robots' cheap, well-made goods were sending human economies into a tailspin, and everything went downhill from there. During scenes of protests for equal rights for machines, we see a lot of scenes of robots being attacked and destroyed without provocation.
Just a Machine / int_eb08d538	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_eb08d538	featureConfidence	1.0
The Animatrix	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_eb08d538
Just a Machine / int_eb37bd61	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_eb37bd61	comment	Code Prime: As Britannia's Fantastic Racism extends to nonhumans, this is initially how they view the Cybertronians, both Autobot and Decepticon alike, with Lloyd, Cecile, Suzaku, and Euphemia being the only exceptions. The Black Knights at first had this view of the Autobots, but after the Scraplet Incident, they come to realize that the Cybertronians are actually Mechanical Lifeforms that are not so different from humans.
Just a Machine / int_eb37bd61	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_eb37bd61	featureConfidence	1.0
Code Prime (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_eb37bd61
Just a Machine / int_ee8cea0b	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ee8cea0b	comment	In Headlander, Earl tells you to not worry about killing the Shepherds and stealing their bodies, because they're "just robots", as opposed to the uploaded humans that comprise the civilian population. Even though Earl himself is also a computer; he apologizes for the deception when he reveals this, noting that after Methuselah nobody would trust an AI.
Just a Machine / int_ee8cea0b	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ee8cea0b	featureConfidence	1.0
Headlander (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ee8cea0b
Just a Machine / int_ef076a36	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ef076a36	comment	Star Trek: Voyager: The episode "Author, Author" questioned the rights of the ship's holographic Doctor. His status was background theme that ran throughout the series. He was initially considered nothing more than a piece of technology that was turned off and on but he eventually came to be viewed as a full-fledged member of the crew and a person in his own right. When the question of whether the Doctor was legally considered a person in "Author, Author", the writers completely ignored the fact that Federation courts had already decided that issue back in the above-mentioned TNG episode "The Measure of a Man". A glimpse of the future in the Series Finale "Endgame" suggests that holographic AIs would eventually get equal rights.
Just a Machine / int_ef076a36	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ef076a36	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: Voyager	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ef076a36
Just a Machine / int_f3464a68	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_f3464a68	comment	In Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Galloway refers to Optimus Prime as a "pile of scrap metal" after his dead body is delivered back to base. And this is even after Optimus managed to verbally own the guy in a debate that featured topics such as human nature and whether they could defend themselves against a Decepticon invasion. Then again, Galloway is just a huge Jerkass.
Just a Machine / int_f3464a68	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_f3464a68	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_f3464a68
Just a Machine / int_f481d3e4	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_f481d3e4	comment	The attitude taken towards David in Prometheus.
Just a Machine / int_f481d3e4	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_f481d3e4	featureConfidence	1.0
Prometheus	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_f481d3e4
Just a Machine / int_f502a38a	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_f502a38a	comment	In a later season episode of The Smurfs, Clockwork Smurf is treated as just a machine by Brainy Smurf until near the end of the episode, after Clockwork deals with Gargamel and Scruple when his Heart of Gold was replaced with a heart of stone and afterward was restored to his original function with a bit of heart-to-heart reasoning from his creator Handy.
Just a Machine / int_f502a38a	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_f502a38a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Smurfs (1981)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_f502a38a
Just a Machine / int_f5574a3d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_f5574a3d	comment	Zig-zagged in Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, with the Cybernetic Humanoid Assault System, or C.H.A.S.. Most of the troopers dismiss him as a troublesome (if highly competent) piece of equipment, but Higgens insists that C.H.A.S. should be made a member of the team. Towards the end of the episode, C.H.A.S. leads the squad out of a minefield ambush and performs a Heroic Sacrifice for Higgens. When Higgens tries to get C.H.A.S. to save himself, C.H.A.S. insists on this trope.
Just a Machine / int_f5574a3d	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_f5574a3d	featureConfidence	1.0
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_f5574a3d
Just a Machine / int_fb9c177d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_fb9c177d	comment	Averted in the Transformers metaseries. While some ill-informed fleshlings are so foolish as to refer to Cybertronian life as being "just machines", it is an established fact, proven several times over that Transformers have souls (they call them Sparks, and they have a special container in their chest to hold it), an extant God (Primus, whose sleeping body is the Transformer homeworld of Cybertron), and an afterlife (the Well of All Sparks, where All are One. It is proven, but nonetheless mysterious). Interestingly none of the above is established for the aforementioned fleshlings — meaning that, given the evidence, it is entirely possible that the machines are more "human" than the humans, by the definitions humans use. The is also no denying that Cybertronians show a depth and range of emotion remarkably similar to humans, and are capable of amazing displays of compassion... And just as capable of savage and relentless hatred.
Just a Machine / int_fb9c177d	featureApplicability	-1.0
Just a Machine / int_fb9c177d	featureConfidence	1.0
Transformers (Franchise)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_fb9c177d
Just a Machine / int_fe16b92c	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_fe16b92c	comment	In Happy Heroes, the Mayor's daughter Buding thinks this of themselves once they learn they're actually a robot, and they immediately start lamenting about being "fake" before running out of the room crying.
Just a Machine / int_fe16b92c	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_fe16b92c	featureConfidence	1.0
Happy Heroes (Animation)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_fe16b92c
Just a Machine / int_fe65c06d	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_fe65c06d	comment	In Crysis 3, Claire holds this view towards Prophet, which is strange, considering she knows full well that he's most assuredly not.
Just a Machine / int_fe65c06d	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_fe65c06d	featureConfidence	1.0
Crysis 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_fe65c06d
Just a Machine / int_ff5cc447	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ff5cc447	comment	Short Circuit has this as its central premise. The robot can't be alive because it's a machine which aren't alive by definition. Never mind that it's now got free will and a sense of self-preservation, it's still just a machine... right?
Just a Machine / int_ff5cc447	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ff5cc447	featureConfidence	1.0
Short Circuit	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ff5cc447
Just a Machine / int_ff8d0a13	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ff8d0a13	comment	Mahu: In "Second Chance" this is both played straight and averted by the Galactic Commonwealth. On the one hand, mining robots only focus on their job and combat droids are a pitiless yet efficient replacement for soldiers of flesh and bone which can be replaced. On the other though, as technology improves beyond expected limits, A.I. begins to formulate more and more complex thoughts, while humanity itself slowly "improve themselves" to become almost machines.
Just a Machine / int_ff8d0a13	featureApplicability	-1.0
Just a Machine / int_ff8d0a13	featureConfidence	1.0
Mahu (Lets Play)	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ff8d0a13
Just a Machine / int_ff9ab17f	type	Just a Machine
Just a Machine / int_ff9ab17f	comment	Star Trek: The Next Generation: The episode "The Measure of a Man" puts Data on trial to determine whether he is a sentient being with rights as a Federation citizen, or merely a machine and thus Federation property. The entire debate overlooks the fact that they had already granted him an officer's commission and rank (even as Picard tries to argue that medals and honors Data has received for courage would suggest he is a person), which would simply not apply to property. It's not as if the ship's computer has a rank or can issue orders to other personnel. "The Quality of Life" features Data trying to stand up for the rights of several auto-tool probes that seem to be developing and demonstrating sentience (and even self-preservation instincts). At issue is where to draw the line between an intelligent tool and a sentient being, especially when considering sending the probes on suicidal assignments to save the lives of human beings. In the end, the solution they arrive at is to give the probes a choice about whether to accept the mission (they do, but come up with a better plan). In "Emergence", the ship itself does indeed become self-aware and sentient, and immediately begins pursuing its own agenda. Captain Picard's response: immediately order the crew to do everything possible to communicate with and assist the Enterprise in its goal — which turns out to be to reproduce and spawn a progeny, before dying and returning to its original non-sentient state. By this point everyone on the ship is in agreement — if it's a machine that thinks, then it's as much a person as their admired and respected Lieutenant Commander (who later becomes captain of the Enterprise in the expanded universe). When Data asks Picard why he chose to risk the entire crew and even the Federation itself if the spawn turns out to be hostile, Picard points out that the sentient Enterprise's mindset was an amalgamation of all their dealings with the ship and its computer. "If our dealings with the ship have been honorable, then we can only trust that the result of those dealings will be honorable. In either case, whatever we encounter down the line — we will have earned."
Just a Machine / int_ff9ab17f	featureApplicability	1.0
Just a Machine / int_ff9ab17f	featureConfidence	1.0
Star Trek: The Next Generation	hasFeature	Just a Machine / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Just a Machine	processingCategory2	Robot Roll Call
Just a Machine	processingCategory2	Speculative Fiction Tropes
Just a Machine	processingCategory2	You Hate What You Are
Happy Heroes (Animation) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Android Kikaider: The Animation / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Belle (2021) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Brave Police J-Decker / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Ghost in the Shell / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Ghost in the Shell (1995) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Metallic Rouge / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Tekken: Blood Vengeance / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
ABC Warriors (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Avengers Disassembled (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Blade Runner Titan Publishing (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Justice (DC Comics) (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Paperinik New Adventures (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Runaways (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Kree/Skrull War (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
2000 AD (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Magnus Robot Fighter / Comicbook / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Superman (Comic Book) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Friendship Is Optimal: Always Say No (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race / Fan Fic / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
/SovereignGFC/Origins / Fan Fic	seeAlso	Just a Machine
Code Prime (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Limitless Potential (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Marionettes (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Miraculous: Power of the Primes (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Of Sheep and Battle Chicken (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Origins (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
RWBY: Destiny of Remnant (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Sonic Origins (Ri2) (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Tales of Team OMEN (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers: MHA (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Two's a Crowd (Fanfic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Autómata / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Avengers: Age of Ultron / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Bicentennial Man / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Chappie / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Ex Machina / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
I, Robot / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Monsters of Man / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Prometheus / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Red Planet / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Return to Oz / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
RoboCop (1987) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Simulant / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Star Trek: The Motion Picture / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Terminator 2: Judgment Day / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Terminator: Dark Fate / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Creator (2023) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Electric Grandmother / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Tomorrowland / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers: Age of Extinction / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers Film Series / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
2010: The Year We Make Contact / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Dragon Age (Franchise) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers (Franchise) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers Film Series (Franchise)	seeAlso	Just a Machine
Shakugan no Shana / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Agent G / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
But Whether Men Do / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Crest of the Stars / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Eldraeverse / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Feet of Clay / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Jack Blank / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Revenge of the Sith / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Robopocalypse / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Shakugan no Shana / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Skyward / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Alchemy of Stone / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Bicentennial Man / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Murderbot Diaries / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Sun Eater / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
PinocchioDenial	seeAlso	Just a Machine
Robot / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Robotic Reveal / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
TheBookOfStoriesOCT	seeAlso	Just a Machine
Absolute Boyfriend (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Dorabase (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
EDENS ZERO (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Pluto (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Queen Millennia (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Super-Conductive Brains Parataxis (Manga) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
If AI Ruled the World (Manhwa) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Perturbator (Music) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Theatre of Tragedy (Music) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Friends at the Table (Podcast) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
SAYER (Podcast) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Mass Effect Relinquish (Roleplay) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
WALL•E Forum Roleplay (Roleplay) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Bassie & Adriaan / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Battlestar Galactica (2003) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Cybervillage / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Eureka / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Legend Heroes / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Logan's Run / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Real Humans / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Small Wonder / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Star Trek: Picard / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Star Trek: Voyager / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Stargate Atlantis / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Tales from the Darkside / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Adventures of Slim Goodbody / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
The Good Place / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Total Recall 2070 / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Westworld / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
R.U.R. (Theatre) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Binary Domain (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Civilization: Beyond Earth (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Cyborg (2007) (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Environmental Station Alpha (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Halo 5: Guardians (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Last Origin (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Marathon (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Mother 3 (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Persona 4: Arena (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Pokémon Xenoverse (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Read Only Memories (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
SANABI (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
SOMA (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Sailor Moon: Robot Frenzy! (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
XCOM: Chimera Squad (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
ULTRAKILL (Video Game) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
HFIL (Web Animation) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Overly Sarcastic Productions (Web Animation) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Starship Goldfish (Web Animation) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Commander Kitty / Web Comic / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Danganronpa Parody (Web Video) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Friendship is Witchcraft (Web Video) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Half in the Bag (Web Video) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
A Miracle of Science (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Assembly Line (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Dragon Ball Multiverse (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Emmy the Robot (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
MS Paint Masterpieces (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Spacetrawler (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Suitor Armor (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Zap! (Webcomic) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Batman: Under the Red Hood / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Green Lantern: The Animated Series / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Hot Wheels: AcceleRacers / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Mega Man (Ruby-Spears) / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
My Life as a Teenage Robot / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Ready Jet Go! Space Camp / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Teen Titans / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Xyber 9: New Dawn / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Young Justice - Original Series / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine
Transformers Alter Verse / Fan Fic / int_9075ac17	type	Just a Machine

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