How do you make a robot, human?

[Eutopia]

I'm currently writing a HumanxRobot story, but I'm having a little trouble with it.
My male character, Seven, the "Companion-Bot" is AI, so the longer he spends around his human "owner" the more of a personality he develops.
But the problem is, I want to still keep him distinctly robot without making him seem flat.
That's a bit of a struggle and it's certainly going to need some creative writing.
What's more is I want to inject a bit of emotion into him.
I want it to be a key-point in the narrative, a robot gaining emotions for his master.
But is it emotion? Or is it just AI?
MYSTERY. =o
So far, I've worked in a little bit of that by making him delay following an order or completely ignoring it altogether when it comes to bed-time "activities."
But I'm kind of stumped, does anyone have any ideas they'd like to share so they could make this a bit easier for me? xD​

 

[PacoFear]

Eut, you may find this thread relocated. I'm not so sure the Story Discussion Circle is the proper forum. You might have more luck in Story Ideas.

Still, I'll lob my $0.02 at you in the meantime. I don't really think you need to reinvent the wheel. Just rummage through your own pop culture memory banks. Robots of the kind you're trying to describe have been written already: Sonny from iRobot; Cmdr Data from Star Trek; and Number 5 from Short Circuit. The first common behavior for characters like these that comes to mind for me was their tendency to ask more and deeper questions as they move towards a more acute self-awareness.

G'luck,

-PF

 

[KoPilot]

Just about every Transformers fanfiction featuring human and robot characters touch on this at least marginally. I'd really hate to recommend reading some to anyone, but it might actually help you.

It's very, very easy to give a non-biological being emotions and such, while still striking a gratifying contrast between the robot and their human counterpart. The two main things to do are to take into consideration their physical differences: wires vs. veins and nerves, struts vs. bones, plating vs. skin, servos vs. muscles and tendons, etc. Then also play up their neurological differences. How they process and interpret information, idioms, color, everything. And then you've got the emotional component to compare how similar they are too, which is usually essential to stories like these.

Anyways, good luck.

 

[BlueRueFiels]

A very preliminary stab at a thought: give the robot some distinctly robot "tics".

Not using contractions, a view strange syntax patterns, odd reactions to a very few specific inputs/situations/commands. These might do the trick in keeping it non human as it gets more emotive, and possibly add some depth to the character?

 

[davidharley8]

The researchers who are injecting humanity to create a robot robotics to communicate with people via more reflective. They are building robot receptionists and robot physical therapists. It is finishing work huggable, teddy bear robot line that help to monitor the mental and physical health of sick children, and only a few thousand dollars apiece. The robots are enticements autistic children from their shells. And there's a cute penguin robot, Mel, that makes people's eyes and nods when they talk.

 

[Warguren]

There is a Japanese TV Comedy/Drama series released in the last few years called "Ultimate Boyfriend" (that's the english translation)

The basic premise is a girl wins a free week testing out an android that is supposed to be the perfect boyfriend. As the story progresses, the line between programming and self determination becomes blurred.

It's only 10 or so episodes... look it up. You can find it subtitled and streamed for free on the net easily enough.

 

[lauren26f]

Think Battlestar Galactica's Six (Tricia Helfer) is a good way to go.

 

[avidreader_01]

possible ideas

if its a robot/AI, how about having his owner or some scientist close to the hero write an emotion(ican?) program that introduces emotion to your main character. That would be a way to go... you could show the trouble he has assimilating this new program, how his personality gradually changes/emerges, and how his reactions to different scenario/everyday life changes to suit his emerging emotions. I hope this helps

 

[knifeheart]

for inspiration, try reading the horror novel "demon seed." in it a sentient AI captures a woman with the purpose of impregnating her but tries to woo her by adopting more and more humanlike qualities. the entire underlying theme of the book is how the AI comes close, but never quite gets what it truly means to be human.

there are two versions of the book; i read the one published in the 70s.

 

[lustatopia]

Making a robot seem human in a story is the easy part!

You already know about being a human from first hand experience. Unless you are a Turning Machine.

Making a robot a realistic AI is the hard part. So try approaching the problem from the opposite end.

Reading about how robots have been portrayed in literature and pop culture is a good start. No need to re-invent the wheel. But I've been finding all sorts of really weird AI stuff around on the internet that only a computer science or evolutionary psychologist would think about, but which is really fundamental to how AI might evolve and think.

The AI technology is moving so fast that literature is behind the curve is you want to appeal to hip, well-informed audiences. Try searching Google for Ray Kursweil, Singularity, Nanotechnology, Vernor Vinge, nootropics, etc.

You got to get up to speed on the topic.

The internet is so thick we AI/robotic discussion that finding a handle to approach robot personality should be easy and fun. Learn and appropriate the jargon too.

Here's a great example of just how beautifully and cooly arcane it can all get:

http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2011/02/why_we_should_fear_the_paperclipper.html

Notice the human-like qualities (both good and bad) in a paper-clip manufacturing robot...;-)

 

[RicoLouis]

I think one of the main things to seperate it from a human would be the lack of imperfection. Machines don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning, your birthday, anniversity. An AI to become human would have to develop faults and errors. Stuff not programmed in.

 

[JuliaKhanam]

take off your head and put it on a robot, then reattach to your body. Or send your head on one rocket and your body on another. remove your head and rent your body. Anything that you can come up with or just how much do you think it would cost and when. Please have fun, no negative answers or sarcastic answers unless they are funny please.





OLYMPIA TOWN CAR

 

[Kurokami]

I think one of the main things to seperate it from a human would be the lack of imperfection. Machines don't forget to pick up the dry cleaning, your birthday, anniversity. An AI to become human would have to develop faults and errors. Stuff not programmed in.

If you've truly lived a life in which machines have never fucked up on you, then I'm envious. Sounds like a nice way to live.

Personally, whenever I'm writing an AI character, there's one source I look at for inspiration: Red vs Blue. Specifically, the character of Delta, from the Out of Mind miniseries and seasons 6-8. He's such a likeable little guy with a nice little emotional edge that you can feel even below his definite AI-ness. I've always found his speech patterns in particular to be highly instructive.

 

[hottchic]

I read alot of books by Isac Asimov, still to this day one of the best SiFi writers in the Robot genre.

The original book I Robot (not the movie), is an excelent set of short stories by Isac Asimov about Robots. And his book the Bicentenial Man (also made into a move staring Robin Williams) is actually the story about a robot who in the end wants to become human. Isac Asimov also wrote many other books with robots as the main characters including, 'The Caves of Steel'. In another book in this series has an erotic theme where the woman uses a gender accurate robot with a dick to give her pleasure.

There are 2 ideas of Isac Asimov that you might want to check on the internet:

1. The 3 Laws of Robotics

2. The Positronic Brain

Another favorite author of mine, Philip K Dick, wrote a book called 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', made into a movie called 'Blade Runner' (I recommend the directors cut, the book is even better) about Androids that could completely pass as humans.