free will theme
Discussed is whether and to what extent we are free to choose our own actions. Perhaps we are merely pre-programmed computers?
11 total · 4 major · 7 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| Collection: Devs (2020) | major | The viewer is made to ponder whether Lily ever had any choice in how she ended up confronting Forest at gunpoint and shooting him in the head before they plummeted to their deaths, assuming Forest had a modicum of life left in him after being shot. In Episode 1, Forest conveyed to Sergei that free will was an illusion and that the universe, and by extension human behavior, was wholly deterministic. In Episode 7, Lyndon spoke of the "illusion of free will". |
| futurama7x09 | major | Did Bender have free will or was he merely an automaton? |
| movie: Minority Report (2002) | major | One revelation of the film is that people can change their future once they become aware of it. |
| movie: SlaughterhouseFive (1972) | major | The Tralfamadorians said that of all the inhabited planets they visited, they only encountered the notion of free will on Earth. The also explained about how a Tralfamadorian would bring about the end of the universe by pressing the wrong button when testing an experimental fuel. The idea was that it was absurd to try to stop him from pressing the button because it was already determined. |
| blackmirror6x01 | minor | Joan mused that it wasn't her decision to make before going to town on the quantum computer with an axe. |
| movie: Red Dwarf: The Promised Land (2020) | minor | The hologram Rimmer came to doubt he had free will, saying "The computer thinks therefore I think I am". |
| movie: RoboCop (2014) | minor | A scientist explained that RoboCop was operating under the illusion that it had free will. |
| movie: The Matrix Reloaded (2003) | minor | The Merovingian assert that choice was an illusion, but Morpheus disagreed. |
| movie: The Matrix Resurrections (2021) | minor | A man voiced this question: "Are we just ll algorithms doing what we are suppose to do or can we escape our programming?" |
| movie: The Matrix Revolutions (2003) | minor | A point was made about free will when Neo answered with "Because I choose to." to Agent Smith's question about why he keeps on fighting against all odds. |