A.I. Analysis and Pinocchio

                                   Humanity is Subjective, and here's why:

Humanity: an experience felt by those born to the earth. An experience that forces one to feel all the emotions of the world, whether one wants to or not; the good, the bad, the temptations, and the dozen things in between. Yet, does one need to actually be human to experience humanity? In the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and the novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, Steven Spielberg and Carlo Collodi explore this idea, however, they each use a unique medium to do so.

First, let’s analyze the shared humanity among inhuman objects. In Pinocchio, Collodi starts the story strong with a dilemma. As he begins to carve a piece of seemingly normal wood, it starts to cry. This is evident when he says, “‘Where did that voice come from, when there is no one around? Might it be that this piece of wood has learned to weep and cry like a child?’” (Collodi 3). The second sentence of this quote is the most important, for Geppetto is suggesting that it is even possible that a piece of wood coils learn to cry. Crying itself is human; it represents one of the deepest, most painful emotions humans can feel. With this being said, it would seem that from the first chapter, Collodi is already suggesting that humanity has nothing to do with being human, but instead on what one experiences. Similarly, from the beginning of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg’s character Professor Allen Hobby wants to create a robot that can love. This supports the idea that one’s being human is absolutely subjective to experience the human condition. Evidence of this can be seen in the pain David—the main robot little boy in the film—feels when his human “mother” fails to love him. Though he loves her, she was never able to love him back, except in the false reality provided by the advanced robots at the end of the film. These advanced robots are another example of humanity in a non-human. If these robots cannot feel emotion, then how would they be able to care enough to feel the need to put David out of the misery due to the pain he was in? It would simply be impossible, as both Collodi and Spielberg support.

Next, another connection that can be drawn between  A.I. Artificial Intelligence and The Adventures of Pinocchio is that while both main characters aren’t real humans, they still experience situations commonly associated with that of young human boys. For example, when Pinocchio is met by the wise, century old Cricket, he gets annoyed and has a sudden outburst. “At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket” (Collodi 11). An outburst like this—full of passion and emotion—is common for a young boy, but impossible for a simple wooden being. This is another suggestion that one’s exterior humanity is subjective. Furthermore, Spielberg makes a similar point in the scene where David’s human brother—Martin—convinces him to cut their mother’s hair because it will “please her”. David goes through with cutting her hair, convinced this will bring him one step closer to being truly loved. His motivations prove his humanity; an aimless robot wouldn’t care one way or another if they were loved, but David allowed himself to be teased and convinced into doing this action, just like a regular little boy would have been. 

In conclusion, the main connection between the works of Collodi and Speilberg is that the only objective aspect of humanity is the emotion and feeling of it. Any vessel can withstand the human experience, whether that’s a wooden boy, a programmed robot, or a flesh and bone human. To these two creators, it is all the same, regardless of the “skin” one wears.