[228] Story Discussion - A Choice

[Aspen d'Grey]

Hmm, well, I guess tat this means that Robots aren't really given a choice in their lives- they are told to do something and expected to do it, and that's that.

Interesting.

[amaretto]

Makes you wonder whether Robot's 'criminal' behavior was actually just exercizing free will. What a lovely way to end a chapter.

[todd]

I found Robot's closing words moving as well (and had thought from the start that it was a very noble act of Annie to give Robot his freedom once he'd taken Shadow2 home).

Incidentally, Tom's comment "What'll Robot's new body look like? Send your ideas on a postcard - no, don't", reminds me of the conclusion of the episode "Napoleon's Piano" from "The Goon Show" (an oddball British radio comedy series from the 1950's). In "Napoleon's Piano", a few not-very-bright people are tricked by a couple of con-artists into stealing Napoleon's piano from the Louvre (the con-artists put out an ad in the newspapers that they would pay handsomely someone to move a piano from one room to another, and didn't tell the people who replied to the ad that it was from its room in the Louvre to a room in their house until after they'd signed the contract to do so). The piano thieves have no money to afford passage back from France to England and so have to float the piano across the Channel as a sort of makeshift raft; they encounter somebody who claims that the piano is really Rockall (an actual island in the North Atlantic), and it ends with the narrator saying "Was it really Napoleon's piano that they were standing on, or was it Rockall? Send your suggestions to anyone but us."

[0masamune]

robots usually dont have free wil as they are programmed; but it will be interesting to see if kat can change that
also; reynardine seems to know more about the forest than hes letting on.

[owl]

Agh! My heartstrings!

And yes, hm, programming free will...if anyone can do it, Princess Kat can.

[nickgoodway]

I tend to think that Robot has always had free will but has not been allowed to use it. After all he chose to go in search of a new arm with no additional programming or prompting. We all have free will but are often constrained by circumstance ( or common sense ) from using it.

[0masamune]

nickgoodway said:

After all he chose to go in search of a new arm with no additional programming or prompting

yes, but from the beginning anne apologized for not finding the other arm; which could have been a task set for the robot to accomplish later; then in strip#11 Anne told robot to come back if it wanted to. if it wanted to find its arm then coming back to the court would be a more likely place to find it than the forest... though my point is void since when the robot gets to the forest it starts looking for an arm there >_>;;
ah well, they'll always be speculation~

[mrw]

Dawwwww... that's a sweet ending.

She gave him a choice, and .......... um, well, I guess they say no good deed goes unpunished. Maybe that's why the adults tend to be the cynical ones?

But I think it'll work out in the end.