Mando season 3

[Zardnaar]

@trappedslider It is clear to me that droids are 100% slaves in Star Wars and it is super weird and uncomfortable that most of the franchise heroes are totally okay with it. I am a fan of Star Wars in the way that only a kid who was 10 when the first film came out can be a fan of Star Wars, but I have always had to struggle with the cognitive dissonance the franchise's embrace of slavery has produced.

May not be clear though.

Let's assume you freed all the droids. Can you let them vote in free and fair elections? Probably not for the same reason your dog can't vote.

Alternative reality.

"Senator Palpatine your budget has passed taxes are going up 5% to fund the Techno Union on Mechanus III to build 20 billion new droids".

Palpatine "I love democracy"

Holonet reporter "So B2-JX who ate you voting for"?

"We support Senator Palpatine roger roger".

New Bill for the senate. Build 40 billion new droids.

 

[pukunui]

I thought the latest episode made it pretty clear that most droids at least aren’t sentient. Bo-Katan points out that droids are programmed to use reason, and the answer to the mystery is that Commissioner Helgait was using Techno Union nanodroids to reprogram the community’s droids.

I think they’re meant to be a bit like D&D’s modrons. Most of them follow their programming and can’t think outside the box, as it were, and are therefore not really sentient. But occasionally a glitch occurs and you get a rogue one.


If you really want to delve into whether AI-powered robots are slaves or not, I recommend watching Westworld.

 

[Zardnaar]

I thought the latest episode made it pretty clear that most droids at least aren’t sentient. Bo-Katan points out that droids are programmed to use reason, and the answer to the mystery is that Commissioner Helgait was using Techno Union nanodroids to reprogram the community’s droids.

I think they’re meant to be a bit like D&D’s modrons. Most of them follow their programming and can’t think outside the box, as it were, and are therefore not really sentient. But occasionally a glitch occurs and you get a rogue one.


If you really want to delve into whether AI-powered robots are slaves or not, I recommend watching Westworld.

Yeah even in the old EU I can think of 5-6 droids you can say are 100% sentient and 2 droid races/species or whatever.

Guri, maybe IG-88, R2, HK
-47, probably a few more I've forgotten but not very many. One of those droids was an advanced prototype similar to Data from Trek.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most of them follow their programming and can’t think outside the box, as it were, and are therefore not really sentient. But occasionally a glitch occurs and you get a rogue one.

I dunno. The skinny prequel battle droids routinely show emotion, have wants and needs and disagree with one another. I would love to hear what an ethicist says about what constitutes sentience.

Because we all know humans who have a hard time thinking outside the box -- I have a manager who practically has a panic attack when asked to do so -- and I don't know that I'm ready to say that they're not sentient beings because of that.

Also: Cats. Cats love boxes, but absolutely do not think inside of anything. Cats, though, are clearly sentient beings.

 

[Zardnaar]

I dunno. The skinny prequel battle droids routinely show emotion, have wants and needs and disagree with one another. I would love to hear what an ethicist says about what constitutes sentience.

Because we all know humans who have a hard time thinking outside the box -- I have a manager who practically has a panic attack when asked to do so -- and I don't know that I'm ready to say that they're not sentient beings because of that.

Also: Cats. Cats love boxes, but absolutely do not think inside of anything. Cats, though, are clearly sentient beings.

Generally seen as personality quirks. They seem to be cowards but still blindly march to their doom.

 

[pukunui]

@Whizbang Dustyboots: Touché.

I think the B1 droids were given the appearance of sentience in order to make them more relatable and silly for the entertainment of the kids watching the movies.

That being said, the clones are also essentially slaves of the Republic/Empire, and while no one uses that term on screen,* season 2 of The Bad Batch has begun exploring the idea of clone rights and how the Empire treats them as property rather than people and the like.


*It would appear the word “slave” is a no-go for Disney, as evidenced by the fact that Slave I is only ever referred to as “Boba Fett’s starship TM” now.

 

[Dire Bare]

@Whizbang Dustyboots: Touché.

I think the B1 droids were given the appearance of sentience in order to make them more relatable and silly for the entertainment of the kids watching the movies.

That being said, the clones are also essentially slaves of the Republic, and while no one uses that term on screen,* season 2 of The Bad Batch has begun exploring the idea of clone rights and how the Empire treats them as property rather than people and the like.


*It would appear the word “slave” is a no-go for Disney, as evidenced by the fact that Slave I is only ever referred to as “Boba Fett’s starship TM” now.

It's interesting in The Bad Batch that clone rights is set up against the tyranny of the Empire . . . when it wasn't really much better with the Republic.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Generally seen as personality quirks. They seem to be cowards but still blindly march to their doom.

That seems like a great rationalization to avoid addressing the fundamental problem that they sure behave like actual people.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the B1 droids were given the appearance of sentience in order to make them more relatable and silly for the entertainment of the kids watching the movies.

Oh, Lucas was 100% capable of putting in problematic content without realizing it. The prequel trilogies in particular are full of it. He does not appear to be someone frothing over with horrible beliefs -- in this day and age, we would have likely heard about it -- but just mechanistically tossing in things that seemed like a good idea at the time and not listening to anyone who raised a hand and said "uh, George?"

 

[Zardnaar]

That seems like a great rationalization to avoid addressing the fundamental problem that they sure behave like actual people.

They're not sentient in traditional sense though. They're glorified chat gpt machines in most cases. You couldn't let them vote for example for the sane reason your dog can't.

Their personality is programmed in along with their capacity to interact.

R2 is likely free willed C3-PO isn't.