Science fiction characters are people too

    The biggest similarity to me between the different science fiction pieces is the idea of personhood. Many people touched upon similarities between humans today and the characters in their science fiction pieces. This idea of personhood first became apparent to me with my own example, Short Circuit. In that movie, Number 5 develops emotions and relationships, and learns about the world, much like a child would. A salient example of this is when Number 5 first experiences through crushing the grasshopper and becomes fearful of his own death. His reaction is very human – he fears death, because he wants more time to continue learning about the world and be with the people he has developed relationships with.

     Just like Number 5 wanted to escape capture and being disassembled, the characters in Never Let Me Go want to try to obtain a deferral so that they can have more time together before being “completed.” Even though they know the purpose of their life is to die and donate their organs, they want to put that off longer because the characters want to stay together longer. Although it may be easier to see how the characters in Never Let Me Go would experience human emotions because they are clones of humans, they still are othered and not the same type of human as us.

     Finally, in the movie Her, Samantha very much acts like a real woman, being able to fully communicate and learn. Theodore actually falls in love with Samantha even though she has no physical form. Yet, she’s a person that he forms an emotional connection to. Samantha and Theodore joke back and forth and Samantha asks him questions about things about his life that she learns through his emails. There’s also the similarity with Number 5 in that Samantha also wants to learn everything she can about the world and about Theodore.

     In all of these examples, as well in as a lot of other science fiction movies that I can think of, there is a very human element about all of the characters, even when science is involved in the creation of them. They are not completely unrecognizable or out of the realm of being understood, like Benford suggests they should be. This makes me question why we force human characteristics on all of these scientific creations. Is it just because we dislike the things we cannot fully understand? Or is it because relatable characters sell better and make people want to see the movie or buy the book?