Moon : Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

I was pleasantly surprised that Gertie never tried to betray Sam (or Sam). Usually in this type of movie you expect the calm, reassuring computer to "turn evil" at some point, or at least rigidly stick to its corporate programming at the expense of the lowly employees; but Gertie was as good and reliable a friend as a robot in its position could be.

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

Gertie, for some reason, had empathy and compassion. Wouldn't that need to be programmed in. And if it was, why?

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)


Wouldn't that need to be programmed in.
Maybe not. Maybe an AI might develop levels of empathy and compassion by itself, depending on the interaction it gets.

______
Keiko Matsui & Carl Anderson - "A Drop of Water"
http://youtu.be/kPUENUUuqSk

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

Gerty's program is stated perfectly in the movie by Gerty. He says "I'm here to help you Sam" and that summarizes all of Gerty's actions. His existence requires him to help Sam. This means one Sam or all Sams, because that's what Gerty does. It's his reason for being.

Call it honorable behavior or an unforeseen program flaw, it is WHY he does what he does. It's simple but also moving in a way as both Gerty and Sam are ultimately just machines being used by their company. You sense an unspoken alliance between them.

Dear Santa, please send me a Tiffany Mynx clone or lovebot this year.

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

I understand that Sam's welfare was the #1 priority for GERTY, what I don't understand is why the company (like all companies) didn't put the company as #1 priority over Sam. I'd have thought any big company would do so, also why was Sam a priority at all? since he's a clone and not an original human I'd have thought the company would see him as completely expendable and if anything happened to him just "awaken" one of the many reserves.

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

"help the company" is a very abstract concept. who knows what's actually good for the company, and how can that possibly be figured out from an outpost on the moon?

sam, on the other hand, is right there. sam is part of the "machinery" running the base, so helping sam does help the company.

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

Thanks but I already knew that much. I don't think you properly understood my question but that's ok.

Re: Gertie is an honorable robot (spoilers)

I so agree. I loved Kevin Spacey's soothing voice by the way. Sometimes I wish he was my dad.
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