The Consulting RPCW

Mhmm… Like David 8?

I think that it’s crucial to notice the difference of your robot vs your humans. What makes it different? Is it the way it thinks? Can it learn? Does it understand human emotion yet cannot recreate it? What is she built for? To fall in love? What is it’s goal? An artificial intelligence is programmed for something. That it’s motivation. Shy away from the robot falling in love trope. It’s not very realistic when your robot is only programmed for one reason. Think about Siri. She hasn’t taken over the world yet. Her job is to help the iPhone user by providing quick and easy way to the phonebook, safari, facebook, etc. I think it is best to start with the goal of your character before anything else. Isaac Asimov developed the three laws of robotics to govern his characters. If you came up with something like this, it would make the intention much more clear and help you with the way you play it. You can always take it back and if you are stuck, go back to the big umbrella. It will help you develop how the character acts and behaves. 

Second, it’s a good idea to differentiate between a robot, android, and cyborg. A robot is something that’s definitely artificial and its form doesn’t distinguish it from being a robot. An android is something that’ internally robotic but resembles a human form. A cyborg is part organic and part mechanical. Let’s take I, Robot as an example, Will Smith’s character is a cyborg because he used to be an human but uses a mechanical arm. Sonny is therefore an android, internally robotic but resembles a human form. Therefore, when you are writing a cyborg, you are basically writing a human being that has mechanics in him. He/She would have the same feelings as everyone else, even though they might move differently or pick things up differently. If you leap even further, the mechanics might be in the human’s brain, limiting or increasing brain power. Anything like that would then change the way the character thinks, but does it change the way the character feels? 

Third, what plots do you think you can take with this character? Development is important no matter what, but with robots you don't want to be stuck in the "good robot with human feelings" or "evil robot with no human feelings and just wants to do 'good' for the humans". A lot of robots are taken as creepy at first, humans are inherently afraid of what they don't know. Androids, cyborgs, robots all fit into this category. You can play a creepy android character, but remember that the creepiness is only perceived by the humans, not the character itself. How does the character see itself is also very important. Does she knows that she's capable of doing much more than the humans? If she does know that, how does this affect her relationship with everyone else?

I have a few links that might help you:

• Character Development: The Cyborg
• Mistakes Fiction Writers Make when Writing about Robots
• The 10 Best Cyborgs in Pop Culture
• Asimov's Laws of Robotics are total bs
• Character intentionality as Artificial Intelligence
• Ted Chiang redefines how everybody will write about AIs

Hope this helps!