A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

William Hurt: Prof. Hobby

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Professor Hobby tells David exactly what he was designed to become] 

  Professor Hobby : Until you were born, robots didn't dream, robots didn't desire unless we told them what to want. David, do you have any idea what a success story you've become? You found a fairy tale... and inspired by love, and fueled by desire, you set on a journey to make her real. And most remarkable of all, no one taught you how. We actually lost you for a while. But when you were found again, we didn't make our presence known because our test was a simple one. Where would your self-motivated reasoning take you? To the logical conclusion... that Blue Fairy is part of the great human flaw to wish for things that don't exist, or to the greatest single human gift - the ability to chase down our dreams. And that is something no machine has ever done before you.

• [the female colleague questions Professor Hobby if it's possible that a human can genuinely love a robot] 

  Female Colleague : You know, it occurs to me... with all this animus existing against Mecha's today, it isn't simply a question of creating a robot who can love. But isn't the real conundrum, can you get a human to love them back?

  Professor Hobby : Ours will be a perfect child caught in a freeze-frame... always loving, never ill, never changing. With all the childless couples yearning in vain for a license, our Mecha will not only open up a completely new market but will fill a great human need.

  Female Colleague : But you haven't answered my question. If a robot could genuinely love a person, what responsibility does that person hold toward that Mecha in return? It's a moral question, isn't it?

  Professor Hobby : The oldest one of all. But in the beginning, didn't God create Adam to love him?

• Professor Hobby : Tell me. What is love?

  Sheila : Love is first widening my eyes a little bit and quickening my breathing a little and warming my skin and touching with my...

  Professor Hobby : And so on. Exactly so. Thank you, Sheila.

  [the group claps] 

  Professor Hobby : But I wasn't referring to sensuality stimulators. The word that I used was 'love.' Love like the love of a child for it's parents. I propose that we build - a robot child who can love. A robot child who will genuinely love the parent, or parents it imprints on with a love that will never end.

  Sheila : A child-substitute Mecha?

  Professor Hobby : But a Mecha with a mind, with neuronal feedback. You see, what I'm suggesting is that love will be the key by which they acquire a kind of subconscious never before achieved. An inner world of metaphor, of intuition, of self-motivated reasoning, of dreams.

• [David finds out the truth about him only being a Mecha boy] 

  Professor Hobby : David.

  David : My brain is falling out.

• [David tells Professor Hobby that he thought he was one of a kind] 

  David : I thought I was one of a kind.

  Professor Hobby : [Professor Hobby responds with tears in his eyes]  My son was one of a kind. You are the first of a kind.

• [Professor Hobby stabs the Mecha, Secretary Sheila's hand in a demonstration, asking her what she feels] 

  Professor Hobby : How did that make you feel? Angry? Shocked?

  Secretary : I don't understand.

  Professor Hobby : What did I do to your feelings?

  Secretary : [Secretary Sheila holds up her hand]  You did it to my hand.

• Professor Hobby : [Professor Hobby welcomes David back home, knowing that David was searching to find the Blue Fairy]  You are a real boy. At least as real as I've ever made one, which by all reasonable accounts... would make me your Blue Fairy.

  David : You are not her. Dr. Know told me that she would be here at the lost city in the sea at the end of the world, where the lions weep.

  Professor Hobby : That's what Dr. Know needed to know to get you to come home to us.

• [Professor Hobby gives a speech about the artificial being of the modern age] 

  Professor Hobby : To create an artificial being has been the dream of man... since the birth of science. Not merely the beginning of the modern age... when our for-bearers astonished the world with the first thinking machines - Primitive monsters that could play chess.

  Professor Hobby : [the group laughs]  How far have we come. The artificial being is a reality... of perfect simulacrum... articulated in limb... articulate in speech... and not lacking in human response.

• Professor Hobby : There's the rub. Undress.

• Professor Hobby : A sensory toy - with intelligent behavioral circuits using neurone-sequencing technology as old as I am. I believe that my work on mapping the impulse pathways in a single neurone can enable us to construct a Mecha of a qualitatively different order. I propose - that we build a robot - who can love.

  Supernerd : Love?

  Syatyoo-Sama : But we ship thousands of lover-models every month.

  Supernerd : Of course. You're your own best customer, Syatyoo-Sama.

  Syatyoo-Sama : Quality control is very important.

• Professor Hobby : Would you like to meet your real mothers and fathers? The team is anxious to talk to you. I want you to wait here. I'll gather them up. We want to hear everything about your adventures.