What Is Love?

Love. What is love?  Defined by Webster’s dictionary, it states that love is “a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (maternal love for a child.)  It is also an attraction based on sexual desire; an affection and tenderness felt by lovers.  Finally, it is an affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.”

            In the movie Artificial Intelligence, we are introduced to a society that is building robots or attempting to build a robot that can love its owner.  In the form of a child, they begin their experiment.  Referring back to the definition of love, one can see that the first and foremost definition is love from a mother to a child.  David’s human “mother” Monica programs to love David by saying a strange sequence of words in which triggers David’s automatic response to her is love.  Can we honestly say he loved her?  He went on a life-threatening journey, one that he was forced into, to find her and be united with her.  It seems that he has formed personal ties with her, even though she did not have any attachment to him, he did not care and continued to strive for her love.  If a real child is abandoned, many will be in constant search for their maternal mother’s love.  Maybe not as a treacherous of a journey as David took, but an emotional journey causing them to doubt every relationship they have because the first one was broken and lost. 

            The second part of the definition of love describes the sexual desire for another being.  Gigolo Joe continuously and repeatedly showed this for other human women.  The question for Gigolo Joe is was he having sexual relations to love a woman, or to just please them sexually?  He would change his hair, play a certain kind of music, and speak to them exactly the way they wanted, but was this enough? The scene that shows any kind of emotion was the one in which Gigolo Joe comes into a woman’s room to have a sexual relation with her, but finds her dead with her husband standing in the room saying, “You killed me first.”  The fact that he did not kill Gigolo Joe states that the husband wants Gigolo Joe to suffer like he suffered.  If the husband couldn’t have her, neither could Joe.  At this moment you see that Joe did not truly love the woman in the third sense by admiration or common interests, but he did enjoying pleasing her in the best way he knew how, through sex. 

            The third part of the definition describes a truly deeper connection with a person.  This is someone who whole-heartedly cherishes another being and who cares for them and admires them for the person they truly are.  In the movie, Teddy and David have a love and understanding of one another that gets them through David’s long, ever lasting journey.  Teddy constantly being at David’s side shows courage and dedication.  Even though this is robot to robot, it shows them looking after one another and caring for each other’s wellbeing but does not show true love and care for one another, instead it shows a way in which they both can survival.

            Looking at all aspects, I have begun to notice that one robot cannot accomplish all three areas of love.  Yes, we do have people in this world who abstain from the sexual part of love, but we are all capable of it.  David, even if he were real, would not understand what that means at his age, but even 2000 years after he is frozen, he is still not mature and only craves the singular love of a mother.  Joe could only have a sexual relation and Teddy only knew how to survive.  Therefore, robots cannot love because they do not have the capability of all three loves but it can be true that they can attempt to love you, but the closest they can get is infatuation.