Ruel J. Arila Jr.

August 4, 2017
BS Chemical Engineering General Psychology

Bicentennial Man
A Reflection Paper

Introduction
Bicentennial Man (1999) tells the story of a robot who has the capability to learn. More
specifically, it tells the story of a machine who has gained consciousness and had slowly understood what
it means to be human. This reflection paper will focus on how the movie portrays consciousness, how this
portrayal of consciousness reflects on our everyday life, and how significant consciousness truly is.

Guide Question 1.
What was the film all about and how did it portray consciousness?
The movie Bicentennial Man tells us the story of a robot’s journey towards understanding what
humanity truly means. Andrew, the robot’s given name, comes into the lives of the Martin family as a
household equipment. The patriarch of the family, however, discovers something unique about Andrew:
he was conscious. Webster’s School Dictionary defines consciousness as “the condition of having ability
to feel, think, and react,” something Andrew had, unlike the other robots in the film.
His owner soon leads him towards living a more human life. He was though how to tell a joke,
how humans reproduce, and how to know more about himself. As the story progressed, Andrew learned
more about the human condition, and as he learned more about it, the more he yearned for it. He
eventually asked his master to grant him freedom, a concept alien to most robots. Eventually, his search
led him to seek more robots who was like him. His journey led him to a scientist who was making more
human-like appendages for robots.
This opened up numerous possibilities for Andrew. His search for meaning led him to invent more
ways to make him truly a human being. He requested the scientist to give him a more human appearance.
As time went by, he started creating artificial organs to make him more human still. He even designed a
central nervous system so that his emotions and reactions become more and more intense. Despite their
unnecessity, Andrew added a digestive and reproductive system to his body just to experience what
human beings have always felt. Finally, as the movie came to a close, he decided to have the most human
of all phenomenon: death.
Yet alongside this physical changes to humanity were also emotional and social ones. As he
decided to travel, he began to feel the emotions of thrill and excitement. He begins to feel the need for
companionship and communication. As his central nervous system is attached, he starts to feel jealousy,
Ruel J. Arila Jr. August 4, 2017
BS Chemical Engineering General Psychology

attraction, and, finally, romantic love. He starts to long for the emotions connected with sexual
intercourse and food consumption. He starts to ask for the approval of society as a whole. Pain, both
physical and emotional, had also become part of his everyday life. Consequently, because of the deaths
and heartbreaks he had undergone, he longed for death.
Now, the movie portrayed consciousness, first and foremost, as a product of physical
relationships. Starting from an anomaly in Andrew’s “positronic brain” up to a nervous system
anatomically equal to a human being, consciousness was always affected by the physical world. Our
consciousness remains intact as long as our sensory organs continue to materially relay the messages back
into our physical brain.
Consciousness was also portrayed as something that develops due to our experiences. As Andrew
grows older, he feels emotions he had not felt before. He began to understand the sensations that he had
felt when he asked for his freedom or when his master died. He understood the concept of love and joy
when someone begins to truly care for him. Andrew’s consciousness blossomed as his life allowed him to
experience more and more happenings that touched him.

2. How does the film’s portrayal of consciousness reflect our reality?

In both the film and the movie, consciousness is the thing that defines what it really means to be
truly human. Consciousness is the line that divides humanity from machines, plants, and even animals.
Being aware of our feelings and understanding them for what they really are is something unique to us
humans.
Take Andrew for example. Andrew was born very similar to other household robots. He was born
with a humanoid body, a human-like face, and an intelligence that was well beyond human. Those robots
seemed to have all the physical capabilities to be considered as human beings. What made Andrew more
human than any of them, however, was the fact that he was conscious.
Andrew, unlike any robots, knew how to feel, albeit not physically. Andrew, however, can feel
emotions. He had feelings and affections for other people. He had the capacity to discover and learn.
Moreover, he can communicate these thoughts to others, making his relationships more personal. His
consciousness allowed Andrew do something no other robot can: to form human relationships with other
people and feel their emotions.
This rings a bell in our society today. When we find someone doing something with the lack of
either empathy or consideration to the other person’s feelings, we consider him as “inhumane.” The
Ruel J. Arila Jr. August 4, 2017
BS Chemical Engineering General Psychology

capability to feel and understand the joys and sufferings of others is what makes us and Andrew human
beings.

3. How important is consciousness?

Consciousness is, as I have discussed earlier, the marking trait of a human being. The capability to
feel and react to different experiences shows us what humanity really means. Without consciousness, we
would be just biological robots, capable of learning new things but without awareness of what we can do
with it to benefit others. Without consciousness, we would be nothing more than highly evolved apes. We
would follow our instincts and desires, without thinking about the feelings and emotions of others.
Moreover, consciousness is what keeps us humanity on moving forward. Our ability to be aware
of our thoughts allows us to develop it even further. Through this, we were able to innovate and invent
ideas and things which is now needed in our daily lives. Our consciousness played a key role in our
development as a species, and without it we could have never had the lives we have today.