So last time I dealt with the "insane program" archetype... the robotic authority figure we humans end up giving too much control only to find out too late that such systems aren't infallible.

Today, it's time to deal with the "introspective" archetype... The artificial beings that recognize their nature and the gulf that separates them from humanity. The lonely souls of artificial intelligence.

It comes as no surprise to anyone that my favorite here is the Vision, from Marvel Comics "Avengers" series. I especially liked that he had cornered the market on a particular kind of loneliness in the MU... he was the lonely in a crowd character. He wasn't persecuted like mutants (at least up until he tried to live like a human), and yet he wasn't really the one the crowds cheered for on the Avengers. He had plenty of friendly teammates, but aside from Wanda he had precious few actual friends. He was always just outside the group... known and accepted, but never necessarily popular to his fellow teammates, no matter how many times he saved the day back in the 70's. They were always just a little put off by the voice, and the manner...A manner which, by the way, was 1000x cooler back when artists like John Buscema handled the artwork. Really, the erosion of the Vision's personality like had a great deal to do with future artist, who instead of drawing the brooding, expressive figure that Buscema did, often had him stiff and robotic.

What made the Vision a cool character wasn't that he was emotionless... it was that he was a pressure cooker of emotions. Indeed, even though he shares the "introspective" category with Star Trek's Data, he was obviously conceived to be much more like Spock (especially considering the reported history of Vulcans)... Vizh was only cold and logical as a defense mechanism, as he had no history of filtering strong emotions. The best part of reading old Avengers story arcs for me was to see how long it would be until someone pushed Vizh too far, and he lashed out in rage. That was something that was taken away from the character for decades, and never really has been recaptured... A pity.

Likewise, when Vizh fell in love, he fell hard. Not surprisingly, the "Introspective" robots are the ones that get the love stories. (It probably doesn't work out that well for the "unstoppable killing machines". But then it doesn't really work out well for robots in general.

Some other favorites of this category:

Data from "Star Trek" (as mentioned): Interesting in that they kept the robotic limitations on him for all of his television lifespan. Really, when they granted him emotions in the movies, he lost a lot of appeal.

Galahad from "Sparks" (comic by Lawrence Marvit): A socially awkward young woman unintentionally makes the man of her dreams, leading to a tragic love story.

Most everyone from "Blade Runner": Lots of introspection on all fronts, blurring the line between this category and the "unstoppable killing machines" one.

Det. Murphy from "Robocop": Okay, he was technically a cyborg, but lose the fleshy bits and he was simply a Vision who remembered being Simon Williams. And really, this category exists beyond robots, sharing brotherhood with all man-made life, from Pinocchio to Edward Scissorhands.