What is it to be human?

Today, late at night, while I worked on my own and another’s marketing schedule, I was watching a film that came out when I was in middle school. This film is called Bicentennial Man. It is one of the many great works starring the late Robin Williams.

Bicentennial Man follows a robot who wants more, who wants to be human. Now, if you are a Star Trek fan, his character may remind you of Data.

The difference is that Data was designed to evolve and become human. In Bicentennial Man, the robot known as Andrew wasn’t built to be a human; he was built to serve humanity. Astonishingly, Andrew shows to have creativity. Seeing his uniqueness, his owner aids him in this conquest by educating him on the ways of life, giving him the ability to support himself, and freedom.

Andrew grows, but then realizes he wants to experience more. With the help of another, he finds ways to look human, to be human inside (though still immortal), and then later, to age like a human. Andrew knows he was activated as a robot, but he wants to die as a man. So, he goes through the legal system, fighting for the validation to be human, and sadly dies just as the validation is made. He dies being loved and is acknowledged to be the oldest human alive.

So, what is it to be human?

For Andrew, humanity started with creativity. It then continued with education on life, such as how humans are conceived, which traumatized him a bit, and that over time, people are posed to grow not only in age but from the things we have learned around us. After being educated about humanity, Andrew wanted to feel what humans felt: pain, anger, hunger, and love. It is those feelings that changed Andrew, the biggest one being what one will do to be loved by another and not lose it.

In the film, Andrew explains what love means to him, and I wonder: Is it love that makes us human? The ability to love each other, to make mistakes, to keep pushing ourselves for more. Is that being human?

Like Andrew, I am a bit unique. It is hard to read people. I have to draw on my experience and the lessons my parents taught me to act appropriately. I remember sarcastic phrases, so I may pick them up when spoken to me. Some just completely still pass me by, and I believe someone is being literal. I think very logical. Lastly, I want to appease others, including family members, because I know how much they would worry and how they still worry. I don’t really get to do what I want to do because in this world, you can’t.

Being human isn’t fair. You don’t get everything you want, but one should always try to almost reach it, even knowing perhaps it isn’t in your stars. I see the world now, and it saddens me that nothing has really changed. I see people trying to force their change upon others, rather than growing from within, because they themselves fear change. They fear being wrong. They fear wanting to know themselves and run from it. Always running.

Being human is supposed to be about growth, and people are not growing. They don’t want to grow. They want to simplify life and just label everything, including themselves. They can’t accept what they are and then grow. They want to grow without learning who they are. Perhaps that is why in the world we have so many problems.

So, what makes us human? Is it love? Is it pain? Is it the ability or the inability to grow?