Game Theory: Who is Mega Man's True Villain?

[Irick]

The entire point of the 3 laws of robotics is to show how it's pretty much useless to come up with rules of robotics.
They are not meant as a practical guide.

The only way to a robot to follow the laws of robotics is for an entity to be able to identify the intent of the three laws. This implies human level reasoning at the least. Further, in order to obey the intent of the laws a robot has to be able to deviate from the literal interpretation.

So... in the end any system of hard logic will fail. Having the capability of fuzzy logic decisions and the ability to re-work the framework is necessary.

Light's solution is the better, even if it allows for exploits. All systems are exploitable.

 

[SweetJackal]

The opening of the video with a heavy emphasis on the Megaman 7 ending really puts a wrong foot forward with the theory. This is because that ending isn't canon and is merely an "artistic liberty" taken with the localization of Megaman 7.

In the original game released in Japan that entire line "I am more than a robot" was actually "..." which is why the text crawls into place. The text itself was changed but the original coding behind the display of the text wasn't. This would mean that despite the desire for Megaman to put an end to the run around right there, he couldn't. Megaman is then removed from the choice and conflict by the building collapsing on Dr. Willy.

So the ending is actually a localization error. Even so, the idea that Dr. Light is the real villain here isn't a new idea nor one without merit. It has been explored by portions of the fanbase time and time again and shown that there are a lot of darker points to the supposed world utopia created by Dr. Light.

Loved the video and enjoyed it though. Thanks for the show!

 

[SinisterDeath]

That wouldn't make Light the villain...
That's like saying "who ever built the concentration camps is the true villain not Hitler."....

If there were a guy, who gave unlimited supply of funds, armaments to Hitler and say 'have fun'. It doesn't make Hitler any less of a villain... It just means there was a guy funding & potentially encouraging said behavior.

As to the Doctor light being the true villain? Perhaps he's like a politician.. He is highly negligent and quite simply incompetent...

 

[angel85]

But I'm pretty sure some version of the 3 laws must exist for master class robots in the Megaman Universe. For drones and military robots (mets, sniper joes, etc) they have no such rules because they aren't truly sentient, but for the Master Robots, unless Wily alters their programming, they have to follow those laws. There was even an issue of the Megaman Comic where terrorists were holding a convention hall hostage and the Robot Masters were powerless to act against them because they were all human, so long as the terrorists promised that nobody would be harmed as long as the hostages cooperated the masters had no choice but to let them do as they pleased. Some of them even lamented not having Wily's programming anymore. It wasn't until one of the terrorists punched a guy that the robot masters were finally able to counter attack, with non lethal force. I think the reason Megaman attempted to break the laws at the end of MM7 is because of how long he has been active, like in the Will Smith movie "I, Robot," the central AI that ran the city came to the conclusion after years of operation that in order to protect the bulk of humanity it would have to act against the wishes of and even kill a few of them. Megaman probably came to the same conclusion, "this ONE man dies, millions more will be safe." In fact, when Dr. Light finally DID create a machine capable of having totally free will, he was afraid to activate it, so he put it in a pod and had it run ethical simulations for 30 years to ENSURE it wouldn't come out evil, that's the premise of Megaman X. Dr. Light sacrificed living to see his greatest creation, his DREAM, from becoming a reality just so he could be sure it wouldn't harm anyone.

 

[Robot-Jesus]

Aren't all the human dead by the time Megaman Legends comes around? I forget.

There is a Zero focused franchise that is set centuries after X and the human still survive.