The Bicentennial Man Analysis

The Bicentennial Man is a story about one of the first robots ever put into service on earth. He goes through trials, both literal and figurative, to become more and more human. At the beginning of the story, the robot, originally unnamed, is in service to the Martin family. It possesses almost no free will or individuality, an inhuman appearance, and few rights. By the end of the story, he has a name, a human appearance, rights, and, both legally and in most conceivable ways, his humanity. Each step along the path is marked by a desire for something, at first, small things, but growing in complexity and scope as he became more and more human. This illustrates, I feel, that desire is at the core of humanity, and helps to clarify the division

between artificial intelligence and conscious minds, regardless of their origin.

In the robot's first departure from design, we'll refer to him as Andrew from here on out, he carves a small piece of wood for a little girl in his care, usually referred to as Little Miss. Andrew shows great talent for it, and this act was driven by his first small desire to make Little Miss happy. This talent afforded him his first real freedom, the ability to choose which carvings he worked on. Andrew's owner investigates the origin of Andrew's talent, something which is utterly detached from his intended function. Here, the reader, Andrew and his owner learn that the imprecise process with which Andrew's positronic brain was created allows for functions outside of his specified purpose, and that any further growth or ability he exhibits will be an unpredictable mystery.

As time passes Andrew earns money for his work, and gains more autonomy. This money was used to further his works, including material upgrades to himself, the first physical change in Andrew. After several upgrades to his body, and the accumulation of a substantial amount of money, he asks his owner, known to Andrew as "Sir," to be able to purchase his freedom. His desire for freedom pushes him to his first legal battle to set the precedent to allow Andrew to be the owner of himself. In this trial, Andrew explicitly states his desire for freedom, and is granted it.

After he gains his freedom, Andrew gets a house built explicitly for him to work and live in.

After that, Andrew begins emulating humans more, and begins to wear clothes in line with human fashion, despite his otherwise inhuman appearance. His next desire is to learn more about humans. His studies up until this point, however, have largely been concerned with woodworking and furniture design, and his desire pushes him to make a trip into town. An encounter with two townspeople almost leads to his destruction while on the way to the library. Only with the intervention of Little Miss's son, George, is disaster averted. While nearly catastrophic, Andrew's next desire is made clear. He must be able to protect his own dignity. This leads to the next legal battle, where he wins, and establishes legal rights for all

robots.

As his next desire surfaces, we see more changes in Andrew from the robot he was at the beginning of the story.

While he still adheres to Asimov's three laws of robotics, he does so much less rigidly than before. Instead of being utterly deferential to any human, he pushes to have a new, much more human looking body created for him, for his brain to be installed in. After installation, his desire to be more human continues to grow. His attentions are now directed towards crafting artificial organs to more accurately simulate the function of the human body. In the eyes of most people, he seems human, although his legal status still clearly defines him as a

robot.
His final push for humanity seems doomed. His body and organs are synthetic, but many humans have adopted facets of this to extend their lives. One of the only truly inhuman parts of him remaining is his brain, which is made of platinum and iridium. In a final, desperate move to ensure he is granted his humanity, he gives himself something all humans have, a decaying body that even science cannot repair. The true humanity of his desire is recognized, and on the 200th anniversary of his creation, he becomes fully human in the eyes of the law, and the world, shortly before his death.