# Research Question: Teaching machines to feel human emotion



## apokalypsis (Feb 26, 2009)

I have a research question I would like some help with. If you know of a story/movie/novel/teleplay/etc wherein someone is trying to teach a machine/computer/robot to feel human (or even animal) emotions, please list it below. I am particularly interested in stories that emphasize the human-computer relationship. (And they don't have to be particularly good stories either.)

Thanks!


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## Stylus (Feb 26, 2009)

I'll kick off with 'War Games' – Matthew Broderick's character tries to teach a A.I. computer (in control of the nuclear launch codes, naturally) about the futility of war – mainly by making it play tic-tac-toe over and over again.

Also from the 1980s (hmm ... maybe there was a trend here) there is Short Circuit, Space Camp, Flight of the Navigator.

Oh, and Data from Star Trek: TNG, obviously.​


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## Dave (Feb 26, 2009)

I was going to mention some of those too, especially _Short Circuit_ and the sequel - strange they are all from the 1980's. If you broaden it to Machine-Human relationships, and the possession of memories, then there is also _Blade Runner_ from the eighties. The only recent thing I can think of would be _Wall*E_. Other examples of machines having or not having emotion would be _The Forbin Project_, HAL in _2001: A Space Odyssey_ and David in _A.I._.

BTW Data has his origins in Gene Roddenberry's earlier TV series _The Questor Tapes_ about an Android seeking his maker. You may want to check that out. There are various times Data is taught what it is to be human in _Star Trek: TNG_ but he is most childlike in the pilot episode when Riker compares him to Pinocchio. The best example is when he gets a joke by Geordi that he was told 10 years earlier.


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## Stylus (Feb 26, 2009)

I've never even heard of The Questor Tapes - I'll keep an eye out for them.

Another film has occured to me: Terminator 2 (and Terminator 3, I suppose, but I've erased that from my mind).


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## chrispenycate (Feb 26, 2009)

Harry Harrison & Marvin Minsky "The Turing option"

Tom Cool "infectress"

And I suppose we shouldn't forget Heinlein's "The moon's a harsh mistress", even if the technology's a bit dated.


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## The Procrastinator (Feb 27, 2009)

I have a very useful addition. It was a novel I read a few years ago, not exactly  fantastic but with its interesting moments. It was about virtual reality and the development of AI, with the offending computer scientist failing with his conventional attempts and eventually taking the "Freudian" path of attempting to build a conscious computer mind out of an amalgam of "personalities", including a subconscious element, with the equivalent of the ego, superego etc. I have a suspicion it all ended in tears but cannot remember clearly. The reason this contribution is so useful is that I have not the slightest idea who wrote it or what the book was called.


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## apokalypsis (Feb 28, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestions! I will be interested in seeing what else comes into this thread. If The Procrastinator or anyone else things of the author/title of that story, I might be interested in checking it out.


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## Omphalos (Feb 28, 2009)

That is going on right now in Sarah Connor Chronicles.  

In Bicentennial Man a machine teaches himself by placing himself into situations where he was likely to gather experiences necessary to do this.


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## Moonbat (Mar 3, 2009)

How about the Matrix? Or the Stepford Wives, although both aren't really what you're looking for, poor examples at best. 

I know there's one out there, Hmm what about Dr Frankenstein, although how much teaching goes on is debatable, and the monster isn't exactly a computer.

C3P0 often states that he doesn't understand humans, 
and maybe Wierd Science, althuogh again not a computer.
Transformers?

Bicentennial Man is probably the most obviously, he goes all the way to death in an attempt to feel more Human.

Then there was D.A.R.Y.L (another 80's classic)

Well I'm all out of ideas now.

M


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