Pluto : Human feelings of hate explored in Artificial Intelligence

In chapter 20 of Pluto we see a conversation between various TV hosts about Robot Jurors and how they will judge human crimes. One man says that Robots are more impartial than any humans whereas It's an interesting thought that someone can't be impartial and human at the same time. All humans have their own biases.

Pluto's shows a society where humans and Robots coexist in an almost utopia like state. The AIs in that world have been developed to such a level that some characters might ask if certain robots can feel certain emotions or understand them, I have never felt that the author Naoki Urasawa himself questioned this. As far as I am concerned I have no doubt in my mind about the humanity of most of the robots shown in this story. But what does that mean in a general sense?

An AI developing distinctly human feelings means a lot for the society at large, it's another group to consider among the laws passed and well Pluto's society has distinct Robot rights. There's also the ethical and moral implications to consider. Is creating a Robot with human feelings just to have it follow commands something that should be done? Human feelings are also not necessarily only positive, Empathy, kindness are human traits but so is hatred.

Pluto starts with one of the 7 great Robots of the World , Mont Blanc being killed. Among these Robots Mont Blanc was one of the 5 participating in the 39th Central Asian War. All these Robots caused massive amounts of deaths and devastation in the war. The total number of Robots killed doesnt matter like Mont Blanc says in a very human fashion in a flashback it was “too many”. Mont Blanc however found a new purpose , a beloved Mountain Guide guiding the way to developing a tree harvesting program for environmental conservation purposes. His death was widely mourned across the planet.

Mont Blanc wasn't the only one killed, however Bernard Lanke, a key figure in the Robot rights group was also killed. Both their bodies showed in a way that they have horns sticking from the head. The other connection is that Lanke had been a member of the Bora survey group whose findings in Persia directly led to the War and Mont Blanc fought in that war. It quickly becomes clear that these 7 Robots, the best in the world, are the targets along with people who participated in the conflict and Survey members are in danger too. A few of these robots have even started to regret their actions in the War. These are not errors in code, they kind of understand that participating in the war was not a good thing after all. A robot making a mistake only makes sense if they themselves understand that this is a mistake.

We see Lanke could have been killed by a robot. Which would make him the second person ever to have been killed by a robot. The first Robot to kill was Brau 1589 neither was his code wrong that caused this action nor did he acknowledge this as a mistake. It's kind of terrifying to think that a repeat of that anomaly might have occurred but this time there seems to be a goal behind it. It's not even clear if a human or robot did it but if it was a robot the question remains. Why?

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Could it be hatred?__

Even in a society which has seemingly advanced so far beyond our own. We see hatred manifest in different ways. Getting into the actual events of the story now.

There is the anti Robot group who basically want Robots to go back to being servants rather than the current members of society who can own property and live more or less like a citizen. The member of this group we see the most is Adolf Hess; he hates robots; he particularly hates Gesicht, who he finds out killed his older brother.
Gesicht too killed Hess’ brother out of hate after seeing that Hess' brother destroyed the broken robot he adopted.
The killing spree against the 7 robots and the Bora survey member is also led by the extreme hatred Abdullah, a Persian scientist, feels towards them for destroying his home of Persia and his dream of a green country.

It's kind of ironic that due to certain circumstances Adolf Hess comes under fire from the anti Robot group. We have Adolf Hess here who is scared to death of being killed by a group of people who hate Robots as much as he does and the only one who protected him is a robot he hates the most and even tried to kill.

And even when Gesicht dies his strong hatred moves through the remaining of the robots but his last thoughts were.

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Nothing comes of Hate__

It's something Pluto in general believes in.

Atom was Professor Tenma’s creation. He created Atom to be like his dead son Tobio. He was disappointed to see Atom was nothing like him. He lacked the small things that made Tobio who he was like the food he liked or disliked. He even considered Atom a failure and thought that Atom might have hated him. Atom never gave into hate in the series. Even when he was revived with Gesicht’s memories and his hate.

Pluto the Robot that has been killing the other robots is only a killing machine in that body but he just wants to create a green field where life can flourish.

Urasawa does not give us a way towards a hate free world. Just a wish for one.

The manga itself however Ends on a work of violence, Brau 1589 throws a sharp arrow like thing towards the Supercomputer AI that has orchestrated much of the events in Pluto. I do not have the best explanation for how this ties into the overall themes of Pluto. Is it showing that in the end violence is still necessary? That hate persists still? Or is it just signalling the end of that saga.

Whatever it might mean Pluto is an excellent piece of art. It shows issues with a lot of depth and nuance and I am sure I have barely been able to capture a small part of it. Hell I haven't even read the original Astro Boy that Pluto is based on. I do have some problems with Pluto. I did not find the whole deal about the United States of Thracia’s Supercomputer Robot orchestrating the whole thing that compelling. How disconnected it feel with the majority of the events in the story makes me not really think of it much.

But all this complaints pale in comparison to the praise I have for Pluto. I have yet to mention the art which is beautiful, Gesicht as one of my favourite protagonists or even the many questions its asks about the evolution of AI.