The Bicentennial Man raises the topic of racial discrimination as hints of inequalities were scattered throughout the reading in the form of robotic metaphors. The conversation of freedom eludes to historical enslavement as the robots were forced into submission, which for them was due to their positronic brain wired to obey the Three Laws of Robotics. The freed robot Andrew was even representative of the culture present during the reconstruction period following the civil war– he was labeled “free” but still faced obvious oppression. African Americans granted freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation were still suppressed as most were freed into hostile environments lacking any sort of support. Even upon freedom, Andrew was still ordered to act against his will, African Americans were still deprived of economic and educational opportunities while enduring continuous acts of hate from their inimical peers.
I couldn’t help but project my background of biology upon this theme of discrimination, therefore expanding my ideas of the reading a bit farther beyond racism. Among the humans and the robots there was a defined line between the two– even though they both walked like equals and talked like equals, there was a clear disconnect. Outward appearance can’t solely equate two individuals, which parallels to the scientific disagreement towards the the morphological species concept, which uses differences and similarities in appearance to differentiate one species from another. It is an arbitrary system that doesn’t take into account the many evolution-based causes of similar appearances, such as mimicry. This strategy used by animals to mimic characteristics of other organisms is seen in the robots of the Bicentennial Man as their fundamental design is rooted in its ability to almost seamlessly mimic humans– both in behavior and aesthetics.
Methods like phylogenetic speciation are more commonly accepted– this determines species by looking at whether or not the individuals in question have overlapping evolutionary history or any sort of genetic overlap. The humans in the Bicentennial Man reflect these accepted means of equating species; they see the robots as human-like beings, but know fundamentally they are not the same– they do not share any sort of common ancestor nor any genetic similarities as they don’t even have the same constitution. One is flesh, one is metal. One is man, one is simply not.