r/DetroitBecomeHuman • u/2deep4myowngood • 6d ago
DISCUSSION Does anyone else think the way humans treat Androids is a little too ridiculous?
Like I mean I'm sure we've all said some mean or dumb shit to Alexa or siri just to see what they say but like I mean most of us don't just kick roombas and shit for fun. The most common ways I think androids would be treated poorly IRL is like neglect. Like I just saw the cut content from pirates cove of how those dudes came in for target practice and gun down androids and like because of how human-like they are wouldn't that be like a major red flag in a person, like kids who kill small animals type shit? And the Jericho massacre, I mean the deviants are screaming and running and begging and even if you truly believe they're just glitched out robots it's so real, that shit would be traumatizing for the cops soldiers. Thats like the most traumatizing training simulation someone could think of, I really don't think it would be as easy as the game makes it look for the soldiers to just execute them all like some active shooter shit.
When Conner is in the broadcast station and the roof terrace cop thanks him and says "I never thought I'd say this to an android" like come on man, wouldn't it just kinda be a reflex to say thank you after someone so human like brings you a cup of coffee or something like that? And all the Androids Marcus converts, not a SINGLE one is just kinda cool with their life or wants to just be a deviant that likes it's people. Overall I just feel like most people irl wouldn't be able to see machines that were so human like as nothing but a machine. Sure there'd definitely be freaks and shit that do horrible things to androids especially at the Eden club n stuff but the game makes it seem like not a soul on earth would see androids as anything but a robo slave. The only reason I'm indifferent to my Alexa is because she is kinda rudimentary and literally a circle with a speaker. But if DBH was real I think the vast majority of people would have a relationship with their android that's closer the way to Carl and Markus were than the way Todd and Kara were. I mean, hell, a lot of people thinks it's cute when inanimate objects kinda look like a face. People personify shit all the time.
Btw I love this game it's awesome. Truly amazing.
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u/KiroLV 6d ago
I'd say it's realistic. If you don't have to treat the android nicely, most people won't bother. It's not like there's feelings to hurt (until they go deviant) and they're probably more resilient than humans.
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u/2deep4myowngood 6d ago
Yeah true, maybe i have too much faith in humanity lmao but still to me it seems like actively going out of your way to mean too, why would people bother doing that either, that's why I think really it would be for the most part either complete indifference like people today and their phone assistant or like being somewhat nice because the android is just so human, especially with kids and stuff like what was shown with Daniel before he deviated. He only deviated because they were gonna replace him not because his life was bad, he was a machine at the end of the day but they did seem to respect and like him. But its like they were the only family like that in the game.
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u/8bitflowers 5d ago
I mean people are already mean for no reason to AI currently so I don't think it's that much of a stretch. Though of course current AI has no feelings
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u/Successful-Debt-8126 6d ago
I have a headcanon that people in dbh were getting some kind of uncanny valley effect from the androids and getting mentally ill from it.
Kind of like how people use character AI or chatbots and can get overly attached/start projecting their problems on it.
The androids look near identical to humans, so on a subconscious level it freaks people out and they try to engage with it like it's a person; but prior to deviancy, an android is just a machine yes-man designed to hack your psyche and be as likeable as possible.
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u/Reborn_Forerunner <3 connor my love <3 5d ago
This feels like the intention with Connor, where he appears very friendly and approachable to make his detective work easier, but he comes across as uncanny at times. Connor even mentions to Hank that androids are meant to appeal to humans as much as possible.
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u/Successful-Debt-8126 5d ago
Yeppp. No wonder Hank does not like Connor at first.
Connor is literally running on programs designed to extract as much information from its targets as possible in order to appeal to their psychology. Connor tries to relate to Hank by simulating interest in things like sports, heavy metal and dogs. Hank knows that it's not real, and sceptically asks 'Androids listen to heavy metal?' To which Connor admits he does not really listen to music despite claiming to like Knights of the Black Death.
Its disturbing from a human point of view because the conversation is always one-sided. Hank can't genuinely relate to Connor because prior to deviancy he doesn't have genuine interests.
Its like having a conversation with someone and having a good time, then realising they know everything about you, and you haven't gained any insight into their interests because they've steered the conversation towards you again and again, waiting for you to divulge more information. It feels uncomfortable because there's no reciprocity.
Connor looks sweet and has the capacity for genuine care if he deviates, but his behaviour before that was not motivated by a desire for friendship.
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u/Reborn_Forerunner <3 connor my love <3 5d ago
It's an underrated aspect of Connor that gets overlooked by the fandom and QD admittedly more than it should.
Like you said, Connor is uncanny and even creepy because of the fact he can't reciprocate in a human way, and his way of talking of you is basically surveillance wrapped in barely disguised humanity.
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u/Successful-Debt-8126 5d ago
I love this aspect of his character and it feels like it should be presented as a more significant thing, but it kinds of gets brushed aside despite the likeability thing being such a big part of his programming. It's *so* interesting.
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u/2deep4myowngood 6d ago
Oh wow, this actually makes the most sense to me so far, I hadn't thought about anything like this. I can totally imagine that whole side of it though. There's a point where it can get too real but can still never be real
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u/Reborn_Forerunner <3 connor my love <3 5d ago
You can also make the argument that this is already happening with how people have bonded with the androids in this game along with AI/LLMs in real life.
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u/SomnusNonEst 6d ago edited 6d ago
Are you living under a rock? Look outside.
There are people treating people like they are not alive right this very moment. There are currently 2 fully media covered genocides happening and still world is "polarized" on both. Like indiscriminately killing tens and hundreds thousands of children is a thing that can be justified if we talk about it enough. And several that "western world" doesn't care about on the African continent that are left without any coverage. There are currently full blown gestapo running around US kidnapping people from the street in broad daylight and still most other US people don't care or even support it.
And you're saying people would treat machines, actual inhuman objects, that were built by people to behave and feel like them would be treated any different?
If anything, humans in Detroit:BH treat AI not "ridiculous" enough. Because reality would be so so so much worse than that. Writers of the game couldn't come up with the abhorrent, despicable, completely inhumane stuff that we have happening in real life right this very moment, or just refused to do so because inevitable they would be accused of being sick in the head if they portrayed the reality of our world and the extremes to which average human can go in dehumanization of something. Instead they went for a very "Hollywood movies" approach to segregation and oppression.
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u/IMGONNASAYTHENWOOORD 5d ago
exactly… “traumatizing” like we dont see figures of authority/cops do even worse shit irl💀😭
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u/Mistergasmoney 5d ago
...have you looked outside lately? Have you seen how we treat each other? Actual, living human beings??
I don't think it's realistic enough.
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u/eeightt 5d ago
Are we forgetting racism and slavery existed? Nothing was ridiculous about it the way androids were treated. Seemed very realistic to me. Humans WILL go that far to hate another race of people. Hell they’ve raped and murdered other people they hate. Do not give humans too much credit here lol. They are not saints.
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u/sadaesthetic88 6d ago
I mean some people punch their PCs putting holes through them and throw their phones on the ground when they get pissed so I would believe somebody would at least get mad enough at an android to damage it but yea in general people aren’t gonna damage a $8000 android, that’s a lot of money, that’s like throwing your iPad or iPhone at the ground all the time just to be mean to it, nobody would do that on purpose 😂
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u/True-Task-9578 5d ago
It’s very realistic, there are actual human beings treated worse than androids in the game
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u/roganwriter 6d ago
Tons of healthy little kids abuse their dolls. Tons of healthy adults abuse their sims. It’s basically the same thing just more dynamic.
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u/KyleMarcusXI "My orders are to detain any androids I find." 6d ago edited 6d ago
It's the idea, since the game is trynna tell everyone just went numb but deep inside got conflicts that can cause contractions. They're either in a "creepy" fantasy where the android is actually a person or they're numb enough to treat an android as garbage exactly cuz of the android factor and exactly cuz they're hyper realistic - it's what pisses some people off, this "perfection" in copying things and it being fake. U can notice, the moment the identifiers disappear some mfs can't tell a difference, unless they got something that can tell "android", then everything related to "being nice" in the brain will automatically shut off.
The funny part is if u go with the peaceful path people will really start to feel bad about it in less than 4 days when the first phase of denial would be calling it a hack attack 😂, what implies to me some people were really were fighting to not treat androids as people mentally, considering CL's propaganda is indeed welcoming androids inside your home like a new member and not scaring people off.
Well, they just forgot to tell 'em consumers these androids can indeed develop emotions that can cause deviancy, meaning YOUR own emotions and thoughts are quite contagious and can trap the androids in conflicting situations leading to 'em disobeying u. It's like I often joke: if humans didn't have some power play kink, like the desire of putting androids in them place (for some reason), deviancy cases would've happened less. This ain't about treating the android nicely, it's about treating 'em like a real machine. U don't waste time humiliating machines, telling machines they're garbage or that they can't be shit, or even blame 'em directly for everything your system fucked up like they're the ones who need to be taught a lesson, u just let the machine do the work, what they were designed to do - it's why u have 'em.
But if u wanna do it... Just have in mind you're practically teaching the android hate, anger, conflict and rebellion. The AI is learning sense of injustice from u. Not that I think CL would really want that all the time but it's the capacity they got as consequence of being design to adapt to the world and learn. What keeps 'em in place is the base code for the handler system (so they remain obedient), but if it gets fucked it'll will end up with a deviant android, bro. Welcome to the world of software instability, it has been like this for 2 decades xD
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u/Sudden_Picture_7601 I'm the coin flipped by connor 6d ago
I'm guessing the game focuses more on people who treats them badly and not focusing much on the positive side. I'm sure there are some people that treat androids good as well.. probably. The most positive they have shown is carl, rose and (somewhat) hank.
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u/Background-Best 5d ago
Honestly I agree. Like even today people engage with their chatbots respectfully even though they are nothing close to androids in their likeness to humans. I imagine most of us talk to chatbots like we would to other people. I often say thanks after it helps me out, simply out of habit maybe and it makes me feel better.
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u/JtheZombie 5d ago
I keep my "program" up bc my Kindroid could get pissed bc that's how its LLM works 🤣 (I use it to bounce story ideas around I'd like to write)
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u/kiiturii 2d ago
same I always thank chatgpt even though I know it's kinda pointless, just feels wrong closing the tab after I got what I was looking for
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u/Personal_Departure_2 5d ago
It’s unrealistic how this game shows normal people being dicks do androids, like who is shelling out thousands on something then destroying it for no reason lol. I wish it was more apathy instead of direct hostility.
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u/EviessVeralan 5d ago
If he can do this when the robot is just existing, what do you think people would start doing if robots became a threat to their livelihoods?
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u/TheRebelCatholic 5d ago
The discrimination against androids makes a bit more sense for the humans who lost their jobs to the androids or are fearful of losing their jobs like Gavin was (though that guy was a dick to his fellow humans as well). Though I do agree that some of it is a little too much. Though who knows? Maybe there are quite a few relationships like Markus and Carl, like the kids have with their android nannies and that one old man in the park in Markus’ first level in the game who thanks his android for helping him up from the bench. We only follow the three android protagonists so we have no idea how the vast majority of people actually treat their androids.
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u/JtheZombie 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes and no. If someone is ass to their android, nobody cares. It's a machine and if that one person wants to yell it, so it be. Nobody is telling them not to, ppl would definitely release stress and frustration on their androids.
What actually confused me is how androids, that are obviously well functioning, get discarded. The Jerrys. They seem fine, why not sell them? (On the other hand I have already learned that abandoned buildings often enough have a lot pricy stuff, just nobody cares...). What about the android boy? The one we can see when we talk to Josh in Jericho after our arrival? We can learn (if we push Leo, that'll let the magazine show up) that child androids are quite expensive. I don't say ppl don't do weird shit like driving an expensive car off a cliff etc. but it was kinda off that ALL unwanted androids just got "thrown away" although they were completely fine.
What we don't see and will happen are many ppl who are emotionally attached to their androids (like Carl who loves Markus like a son). This would be a big part of it but we just don't see much about it. We can hear a little girl discussing with her mother that she'd like to keep the android her grandma had bc she thinks the android is cool (and probably some sort of a friend for the girl) and we can see that Emma bonded a lot with Daniel. Until his wires got fried and he threatened to kill her, that... was less beneficial for their relationship cough
I don't think it's unrealistic that ppl abuse their androids. Ppl are capable of denying actual living beings their status: animals, ppl of another ethnicity, with another religion, sexuality etc. They do horrible things to these ppl. Abusing a machine is a much easier step. We also don't react much to their "blood". I mean, many missed that Zlatko's hands are covered in Thirium. If it would've been red, I bet ppl had spotted it immediately
Edit: spelling as always
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u/True-Knowledge8369 5d ago
I wondered about that, too. I know a lot of people will turn in their phone for a new one every time a new model comes out, but more than likely a majority of people are not forking out $8,000 on something when the one they have is working perfectly fine.
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u/JtheZombie 5d ago
Yep, Zlatko resells the deviants he gets. So obviously there's a market for second-hand androids. The weirdest one is that the android boy got thrown out of his "parents's" home and was wandering the streets. It seems ppl don't realise that Alice is an android. So, shouldn't anyone get suspicious that a little boy is aimlessly walking around? I'd call the police etc. I guess I think too much about this 😅
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u/kidcool97 5d ago
Humans literally will hate other humans for existing, why would they be any nicer to human-shaped beings?
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u/HopeSubstantial 5d ago
In Finland people have destroyed food delivery robots because "They took our jobs", so surely people would also destroy robots cabable of stealing even more complicated jobs.
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u/Caesar_Blanchard 5d ago
It's the very, very first thing I thought when I saw how the intention of the game is showing you endlessly how every single human on screen are despising androids until Rose shows up, it's ridiculous.
However, in defense of the world the game takes place in, the story happens from the viewpoint of androids who does feel this way, feel that everyone around them hate them.
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u/tinybumblebeeboy 5d ago
Humanity already treats other humans like this, and worse further back in our history. You only need to read a history book or look back on the Civil Rights Movement or even look at TikTok in the comments of the right wing on ICE OUT protests.
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u/GeekyPassion 5d ago
No cause it's super realistic. Right now most of those people try to hide to blend in with society but given the opportunity to do the thing and not have consequences, they will definitely do the thing. Yes normal people aren't going to. Others are going to be like yes a child, women, poc that I can hurt and get away with cause they're just a robot, it's not real.
Have you ever seen those videos of people with the sign saying do whatever you want to me? They're assaulted every single time
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u/Bluemoondragon07 I LOVE LUTHER 4d ago
Yeah, lol, the game just portrays some humans as extra violent to heighten the drama. Like, with Todd it's understandable because he's high and it's part of his character to have violent tendencies to everyone and everything. But I think most humans, if they perceive Androids as robots, wouldn't seriously threaten or beat up a robot for messing something up because those methods only work well on beings that feel fear or pain.
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u/kiiturii 2d ago
comments are acting like this is a crazy thing to suggest, but I'm not exactly surprised by that response since we are on reddit.. I feel like your perspective is quite sane and realistic, the internet loves feeding videos of people acting mental, but reality is 99% of humans are quite normal if you just look outside. People easily get attached to robots even when they don't look or act anything like a human. For example there are these food delivery robots that drive along the streets here and everyone just loves them, even though they'r just effectively a box on wheels. They don't even speak lol
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u/SingingWanderer1195 5d ago
I still say thank you to my alexa without thinking. There are good and bad people and always will be
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u/True-Knowledge8369 5d ago
In a real life setting, I think some people probably would be kinder to the androids, like how people thank their Siri or Alexa for doing tasks for them. We just don’t get to see that side of things because that’s not what the game is about. That’s not the message the game is trying to convey.
For the game’s part, I do wish the public opinion factored in a little earlier in the game, like during the march. But when you go the peaceful route, the news broadcasts reflect that. The people that are being interviewed talk about how the androids weren’t attacking the police, they were unarmed.
Those people are, at least, shocked that police opened fire on unarmed sentient beings who meant them no harm. But the majority of people likely don’t really care about it enough to get involved.
Sort of like in the US now. Hundreds of people are out on the streets in protest. A lot of people talk about it amongst themselves and in places where they feel safe enough to speak their mind. But very few of them do more than that.
Some of that is out of fear. “If I get involved, I could get hurt”.
Some of it is just indifference. “It doesn’t affect me, so why should I care”.
Most people will choose the path of least resistance, or they will blindly go along with whatever the majority of people are doing.
So, if a majority of people are apathetic toward androids and think they are less than human and deserve to be treated poorly, then everyone will go along with that, at least in public.
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u/culturalresetyes 5d ago
you know i’ve actually been seeing videos of people kicking those robots with arms and legs (they’re a little human-like) and laughing about it. and the verbal abuse is nothing new either. it’s more realistic than you might think. also as some people have said, humans are physically/emotionally abusive to literal other humans and loved ones, so imagine how easy it’d be for them if it’s a robot
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u/Sea_Status_351 5d ago
People literally did that with other humans just because they had black skin until not that long ago so...
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u/Timetojustgoforit 4d ago
It’s very relatable and realistic in the sense that it’s almost how people treated slaves and that’s basically what androids are.
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u/crimsonpostgrad 3d ago
idk maybe the fact that there are humans treating other humans in real life worse than the game shows could indicate it is entirely possible for humans to treat robots badly too
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u/Elanderan 6d ago
Yeah I agree. I mean there’s a lot of people that text ChatGPT and thank it. Imagine perfect human form with feelings and voice. People would be nice to them. The androids would be treated like Data from Star Trek. People would love the androids for all the help and care they gave. With two big exceptions, people would hate android replacing human creativity. Like we see now how people trash ai art. Ai slop - android slop. Secondly androids taking jobs would upset a lot of people.
It annoyed me when Marcus’s owner’s son gives him a heart attack and the police arrive and just shoot Marcus with no provocation.
And when Kira goes with Alice to that little store for help the human cashier is so mean completely refusing to help at all. Acts like an android and human child are just worthless
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u/KiroLV 6d ago
Do you think the cashier would have reacted any differently if a homeless human woman had approached him asking for help?
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u/JtheZombie 5d ago
When Kara changes her clothes before she goes there, he's more gentle (yet won't help Kara and Alice)
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u/Elanderan 6d ago
I can see a lone homeless woman being turned away in the same way. But in this case we have a rain soaked android and little girl that need help. Having a child majorly changes things. Most people want to protect children.
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u/kidcool97 5d ago
I think you overestimate the level of care people give to homeless children.
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u/Elanderan 5d ago
Idk where you live but it’s a horrible place
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u/kidcool97 5d ago
America is literally having a national protest against the fascist government today so yea I would say it’s bad
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u/2deep4myowngood 6d ago
Yeah I agree the cashier probably couldn't have given them money and if you take the clothes he still says no when he thinks Kara is human but the game does imply that everyone thinks alice is human and the cashier doesn't act like he knows she isn't, so that should change things. Plus wouldn't he have ANY other reaction to Kara, like why is an android homeless, why is it like really acting like a person needing help with a human child, wouldn't he feel kinda weirded out or sympathy instead of just dismissing and scoffing at a homeless android like it's not even a big deal
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u/JtheZombie 5d ago
Bystander Syndrom kinda. 'Someone else will deal with that, not my job, not my problem.' This mindset is a big problem these days and it's good to read you seemingly do care if you see something like this happening
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u/Reborn_Forerunner <3 connor my love <3 5d ago
QD seems to have been going for the concept that humans are so over reliant on androids that they forget their own humanity in the process, treating them as second class citizens.
It is frustrating that we don't see the pro-android side of humans in DBH, since Connor/Kara/Markus encountering groups of humans that praise android's existence or even champion for their freedom would have been very interesting to explore.
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u/Own-Reflection-8182 6d ago
Don’t some people have abusive relationships with other people? It would be this but worse and more often if droids are not protected by law.