The Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubric movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence critiques the tendency of our culture toward dehumanization. In the film, robots, which represent life, are disposed of when they are perceived as useless or undesirable. The film paints a disturbing picture of a world where others are used to satisfy our selfish desires.

Charles Colson writes about the movie in Breakpoint magazine:

The story develops around David—a sort of cybernetic Pinocchio. Created in the image of a scientist's own lost son, David ushers in a new technological era. Like other androids, he can think, but unlike other mechanical beings David can also feel. David can feel more than the sensation of pain or cold, but he was programmed with the ability to bond, trust, love, and hate.

David is given to a couple whose own son is comatose and whose recovery was beyond the reach of science. The mother is distraught at the loss of her child. When her husband brings David home, she at first resists. But after her initial hesitation, she decides to initiate the program to make David love her. They enjoy a short time of bonding as mother and son until her real flesh and blood son amazingly recovers.

When the couple's real son returns from the hospital, David finds that his mother no longer loves him because he is not real. Like Pinocchio, he sets out to become a real boy—in the hope that his mother will then love him.

During David's search to become a real boy he meets another android, Joe. Joe says to David that love is given only when something can be gotten in return. He tells David that his "mother" didn't love him and never would:

DAVID: My mommy doesn't hate me, because I'm special and unique. Because there's never been anyone like me before–ever….I am real. Mommy is going to read to me and tuck me in my bed and sing to me and listen to what I say, and she will cuddle me and tell me a hundred times a day that she loves me.

JOE: She loves what you do for her… She does not love you, David. She cannot love you. You are neither flesh nor blood. You were designed and built specific like the rest of us. And you are alone now only because they are tired of you or replaced you with a younger model or were displeased with something you said or broke….

In contrast to much of the world, the message of Scripture is that human dignity doesn't come from usefulness. Dignity does not come from a person's religion, nor their sex, nor from their skin color, nor age, nor because of their power or status. Human dignity is something we are conceived with because we are made in the image of God. A quadriplegic has the same dignity as an Olympic athlete; a Muslim the same dignity as a Christian; a Samaritan the same dignity as a Jew. These are our neighbors whom we are to love as ourselves.

Elapsed time: Measured from the beginning of the opening credit, this scene begins at 1:30.27 and lasts approximately 45 seconds.

Content: A.I. is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexuality.