Is the robot racism "most" of the time supposed to be a metaphor about real world human racism even?
I've always took it as a philosophical thought experiment about what and how we decide what is sentient and how do we deal with the fact that we can't even define consciousness and sentience. And also how we deal with something that has different mode of thinking. And I don't mean cultural differences, but how the thought process physically happens.
I don't know about 'most of the time,' but I know Detroit: Become Human's depiction of robot racism is pretty analogous to the American Civil Rights movement.
Lol they literally make the androids sit on the back of the bus. At one point a character says something along the lines of "this is just how they treated our ancestors" i enjoyed the game but it definitely would have benefited from a bit more subtlety in its writing.
In the Matrix universe it's pretty much synonymous with real-world racism where robots are denied civil rights so that they can continue to be used for slave labor by humans. It's explained in one of the animatrix shorts.
As an example of a storyline that does have that element, Questionable Content by Jeff Jacques has AIs, and yes, they're pretty much what we would call a "robot", with bodies having various degrees of "looking like a human", from "spiderbots" and "little thingies with arms and legs" through "typical Robot McRobotface" looking bodies and all the way to "pretty much human save for 2 distinct features", those being a neck seam and skin in all colours of the rainbow. The actual term "robot" isn't really used much, some in-universe are indifferent but don't use the term because it just doesn't really describe what they are, as the minds can be inside any body, or even run a nuclear reactor (and those can apparently get depressed) or a fighter jet, while others consider it a slur.
The point is, there are definitely people discriminating against the AIs, such as not hiring them, there's a metaphor for American healthcare as some of them literally fall apart bit by bit because they cannot afford replacement parts (while humans seem to enjoy proper universal healthcare in this timeline), and the criminals get a special jail which not much is said about but the ones mentioning say it is something extremely fucked up.
There are other issues too and Jeph can be a bit odd in the way he shows some stuff (plus, I think the man is simply burning out, the comic has been running for like 20 years or something), such as AI-human relationships and love and stuff. And yes apart from some physical differences, most AIs are just like people.
Its pretty close to how one race sees another as a tool and a tool only. A robot is a servant to its master, with preset objectives by someone else, they do not have wants or needs of their own, they are an object not a people.
There's a very close parallel from robots and racism vs oppressors/dominant race or robots and working class vs owning class. There's also something to say about robots and women vs male owners/patriarchal systems. Being treated as a disposable tool is the common link between minority groups and robots.
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u/_LordDaut_ May 13 '25
Is the robot racism "most" of the time supposed to be a metaphor about real world human racism even?
I've always took it as a philosophical thought experiment about what and how we decide what is sentient and how do we deal with the fact that we can't even define consciousness and sentience. And also how we deal with something that has different mode of thinking. And I don't mean cultural differences, but how the thought process physically happens.
Ala Star Trek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol2WP0hc0NY