Feedback Friday: Let the A.I. Interpretations Commence (Patreon)

We predicted during our recent episode on A.I. that Spielberg's film would invite plenty of feedback from listeners, and you have already begun to prove us right. Listener K kicked things off by sharing their own interpretation of two aspects of the film that prompted a lot of discussion on the episode: 

I have watched A.I. as a parent of toddlers, then tweens, and finally a young adult. It hits harder each time.  You think “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the world” is rough with young kids, wait until your 19-year-old moves out on his own for the first time.

THE ENDING.  For what it's worth, here is my take: To these highly advanced mechas, what has been done to David is a crime.  There is no way to remove the imprinting without destroying who he is.  He is suffering because he no longer has an outlet to fulfill his purpose. So as an act of mercy, all they can do is end his suffering. Before they do this, they are giving him a happy ending to his story. It’s a “Look at the flowers” moment. Alien Make-A-Wish. All the “We can only bring her back for one day, and only once“ stuff sounds like something you would say to placate a child, otherwise he would continually insist they do it over and over.I do not believe that they brought back a lobotomized Monica. The lock of hair that they had to have known was there is a bit of theater. Rather, she was simply an advanced illusion playing out David’s wish-fulfillment.  He finally has his perfect day, and then they both drift off to sleep. I see it as more bittersweet than bleak, as they are doing him a kindness. And as for the forced sentimentality, well, the bookends of the narration do present it as a bit of a fairy tale.

MONICA'S IMPRINTING DAVID. If you want a really bleak take on this, over the years I have worked with several abused and neglected children.  One constant is that despite how bad the parents are, most of the kids still want to go back to them.  How many people have children without truly thinking it through? Even those of us with the best intentions are having children imprint on us, even though we are flawed individuals. I don’t think parents fully realize the power they will have on a child’s life until it is too late. 

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Genevieve says:

I think you could audibly hear me coming around on the A.I. ending during our discussion on the episode, but I think this reading is what may actually sell me on the sentimentality of Monica and David's reunion. While I intellectually understand the fairy-tale framing as a justification for the tone this sequence, it feels more like an embellishment than something that stems from the characters and their actions. But you framing it as an "act of mercy" for David taps into the inherent tragedy of that character, and by extension this moment. 

This admittedly isn't too far off of Scott's interpretation of the ending that he shared on the show, wherein David and Monica's roles as an object of comfort to the other are swapped, but this reading underlines the implied finality of the moment. We don't get any firm indication that this is David's end, but him falling asleep for the first time ever and finally going to "that place where dreams are born" is perhaps the closest android approximation of death and an afterlife. Embracing this metaphorical death as a real one allows us to sidestep some of the more pragmatic questions regarding David's continued existence sans Monica in this far future, and instead experience it as an actual ending, and a very bittersweet one, as you say.

As for Monica imprinting on David, I'll simply agree that you've pinpointed a really bleak take on a moment that, in my opinion, is already quite bleak in its idea of humanity. I still interpret Monica imprinting David as an act of selfishness, but will allow room for the argument that people can make selfish decisions with "the best of intentions," and without taking into account the full effect of their actions. As to how this relates to Monica’s decision as a metaphor for parenthood, as always, I’m more curious to hear about this from actual parents than to reflect on the nature of parenthood as a childless individual myself. So thank you, K, for raising the question. I'll throw to the comments for further discussion.