R.U.R. By Karel Capek: The Artificial Creatures Are Replacing Their Human Creators

Through their various interpretations, the perception of artificial life serves as a constant foil toward what deigns humans as special, superior even. Though they are purposefully designed to appear and act human-like, the status and nature as a manufactured labor force generally leave androids discarded as replaceable scrap and of little worth towards their human owners. Regardless of the form the robots take, the same concept is developed; a new species that possesses the ability to redefine the definition of a human being, blurring one’s ability to differentiate between human qualities versus artificial ones. As such there are repercussions of playing god, manufacturing new sentient life form, fully capable of free will and thinking for itself. Judging one’s own creation is assuming the role of maker and creator regardless of whether anthropomorphism plays a factor or not. Throughout various instances, the division between humans and the artificial become blurred, the lack of empathy becoming apparent in determining what defines a human being.

Humans consistently consider the life forms they create, whether they be replicants, androids, or monsters, to be nothing more than artificial machines designed from conception to be dependent. The desire to create life proves a hindrance in relation to rational thought. The yearning to play the role of God consumes the ability to see beyond the repercussions of one’s own actions, particularly that of building a nurtured relationship with their creation. Consistently we take witness to a creator designing a subservient entity without any consideration toward the consequences of the being’s existence, upon which expectations are met with fear or control. All the consequences that arise afterwards derive from the humans’ lack of empathy, persuading them to see their creations as servants, rather than living beings. As such, artificial life has a maker toward whom they can accuse and assign blame for their existence, a true outside influence on life. Thus, concern should not highlight the mechanics themselves, but rather the humans who programmed them in the first place, placing the full weight and responsibility of artificial life in the hands of human beings.

The choice of accepting responsibility for another life is apparent, intended as humans choose whether or not to be remorseful and sympathetic to the lives they personally brought from the void. The relationship between the robots and humans in R.U.R. highlights the implications perfectly as the androids begin to show signs of cognitive functions, discarded as meaningless by the human masters. "You think that a soul begins with the gnashing of teeth?". For the robots, their existence prior to their awakening is predetermined, every function programed, without any actions of desire. Humanity thus becomes in essence literal gods to these creations, creators and designers. It coincides that human beings are thus justly responsible for their existence and state of being. All the chaos that follows is because of humanity’s lack of empathy towards their labor force, rather than the robot’s penchant for control. Human innovation and exploitation through these artificial life forms are intended to increase a matter of efficiency and market individual needs, coinciding the need and acknowledgment for responsibility and moral decisions. The gnashing of teeth becomes evident of this concept, displaying the desire to break out of a controlling system and have something akin to a cognitive free will, the gnashing of teeth in pure essence, seeing themselves disregarded as replaceable scrap metal.

Within the storyline of R.U.R, Helena amounts these actions as proof towards the cognitive abilities of the robots, arguing that the production should include the insertion of a living soul in order to fully bring out their potential, the ability for robots to stand as equals to humanity, partners even. In all essence, Helena sees the androids as living beings, fully capable of possessing souls and a consciousness, rather than binary programing and numbers dictating every action towards exploitative slavery and labor. “And then I thought that if they were like us they would understand us, and they wouldn’t hate us so – if they were only a little bit human”. Regardless of her desires, Helena’s concerns are ignored, with further desired enhancement such as pain receptors and intelligence developed not to enhance the existence of the robots themselves, but rather for the sake reliable productivity. Souls and cognitive experience are seen as meaningless for the robots lest they prove beneficial toward the lives of human beings instead. “The human machine, Miss Glory, was hopelessly imperfect. It needed to be done away with once and for all”. This form of dominance assumes that to be human is to be flawed, imperfect, and can be surpassed just the same. For a creator figure, the ability to grant or discard the ability to experience and feel, becomes another method to showcase why humanity cannot elevate themselves as gods. As the robots are seen as different from humanity, thus afforded little rights or legality, expendability and exploitation is almost certainly guaranteed. Despite this, it’s made evident that the robots are arguably capable of feeling something akin to emotional responses to coincide with their processed memories, regardless of their masters’ intended designs.

Justly, the ability for the artificial to independent obtain such desires is evident that humanity cannot recuse itself from guilt. The human creators are indeed successful with their desired creations but fail to acknowledge the consequences of such actions could ensure on society. Disregarded as nothing but slave labor, the robots, when upgraded with full intelligence prove fully capable towards overthrowing their owners upon obtaining a conscious and willpower, whilst their creators discard any role of influence leading to such conditions. Even with humanity on the brink of destruction, the remaining humans on the island still believe they can reason with the war-mongering robots, bargaining the robot creation formula in exchange for their lives.