Detroit: Become Human offers an enriching social commentary that is relevant to today’s issues and likely the issues of tomorrow. As artificial intelligence continues to be expanded and incorporated into many new areas of industry, it’s only a matter of time before a company emerges offering the same form of AI that Cyberlife does in the game. Humans have a fascinating with artificial intelligence and ethics. What does it mean to be human? Should artificial intelligence strive to be human or something better? It allows us a medium to reflect on both the virtues and problems that exist in our species.
This is a topic that will be further discussed in our grand overview of the Detroit: Become Human game. However, this article will focus in on a scene that cannot be overlooked due to its metaphorical strength. As most players will remember, Markus is eventually convicted of murdering his owner, Carl. As a result, he’s tossed into a garbage dump packed full of other damaged androids.
What makes this scene so powerful is that it gives us a literal visual of birth. Or, in Markus’ case, re-birth. Despite the hellish landscape of shut-down bodies and limbs tossed in every direction, the environment is similar to that of a mother’s womb if one thinks about it closely. This article will dig into the scene and showcase how Quantic Dream meticulously displayed a robotic version of birth.
The Womb
First, we must understand that this trash heap is actually a womb. Markus is the conceived cell that is rapidly growing in development. All around him we see incomplete robots or just limbs with no owners. This is not unlike the state of the womb either. Even with a conceived cell, there are still other eggs surrounding it. These are eggs that are unfertilized. They’re not quite developed to the point where a woman has legs and arms just sitting around inside of her womb for no reason, but the genetics are all there for them to be developed into arms and legs if given a chance via a sperm cell.
There’s almost a violence in which Markus must partake in order to fix himself. He has to wrench parts from other robots and apply them to his own model. The growth of a baby is not unlike this. It takes certain traits from each parent and applies it to itself. Pregnancy is also a lot more difficult than many realize. It can be extremely easy for the baby to receive an infection or for an abnormality to occur. A mother’s immune system can even recognize the baby as an intruder. The body then creates antibodies, in a process known as Rh sensitization, that attacks the baby’s blood cells and kills it. This can also be applied to Markus. There are certain parts that don’t quite go with his model. Applying them to his body might not necessarily kill him, but they won’t function.
The Birth
Once Markus has received all of his new parts, he struggles up a hill of mud and robotic parts and bodies to the top of the pile. This is, quite literally, the birthing process. While the mother typically struggles to push the baby from her womb, we see instead Markus struggling, clawing, his way upwards towards his new life. There’s a desperation in his struggle. You can be sure that a birthing mother is just as desperate in her struggle.
One last detail that cannot be overlooked is the use of rain. It coats not just Markus but the entire pit. Once he’s climbed out of the pit, he is covered in mud and water. In birth, there is blood and there is amniotic fluid. This fluid exists within the womb--the pit in D:BH’s case--and also sticks to the baby once they are birthed. Blood is also quite common and can rest on the baby in a few spots. Blood and amniotic fluid are exchanged with mud and rain in the case of Markus.
Yet, he is alive. He is born into the world not unlike how a human baby is born from its mother. The visual sensation that Quantic Dream presents is beautiful and powerful. Not to mention a rather good description of biology!
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