Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai - Vol. 7 Ch. 46

[deadrabbits]

The hell was that?

Felt like the author was told by the editor that this arc wasn't working and to wrap it up fast.

It really wasn't tbh.

 

[Oured]

I can see what kind of situation the author wanted to have now, but he's got a long way to go regarding pacing. It's not a bad concept for an arc and it radically changed some characters, but he tried to set all of this up in like 5 minutes so it came and went way too fast. It should've taken place closer to the end of the story and lasted at least half a volume. Satsuki and the stray robots should not have been sacrificed this early...

Also, page 8... Mina's motivations continues to be undecipherable. Either she say it out of concern for Takuma, or out of concern for her sense of purpose as a robot.

 

[BuyVelomobiles]

Also, page 8... Mina's motivations continues to be undecipherable. Either she say it out of concern for Takuma, or out of concern for her sense of purpose as a robot.

What's the difference? You only care about your loved ones as a means to better propagate your genes. That this specific motivation is buried under a billion years of evolution is irrelevant. Nobody would say you don't love your kids because of this fact. So why is it important to you whether she cares about Takuma for his own sake, or whether she cares because she won't have a purpose? Either way, she loves him dearly.

 

[ThreeTakeWonder]

Can someone help me out on this one, is the mina chan that died the original mina chan or the one they found buying juice?

The one they found

 

[Oured]

What's the difference?

A robot caring for the human they live with because it means they have something to do and a robot caring for the human they live with because they want to be with that specific person are two very different things. It's the entire point of Satsuki's arc, but unlike Satsuki, Mina has been hinting at either one of these two motivations very often, it's tricky to guess what she's thinking when she chastises Takuma for his emotional responses.

 

[kaminomikan]

is mc going to notice that? and if he does, how will he react to it.

 

[BuyVelomobiles]

A robot caring for the human they live with because it means they have something to do and a robot caring for the human they live with because they want to be with that specific person are two very different things. It's the entire point of Satsuki's arc, but unlike Satsuki, Mina has been hinting at either one of these two motivations very often, it's tricky to guess what she's thinking when she chastises Takuma for his emotional responses.

I know you think there's a difference. I'm asking what it is. She insists on Takuma being her owner/husband, and nobody else, she cooks, she cleans, she looks after his health, she protects him whenever something dangerous is going to happen, she stops him when he's going to get himself hurt, she made preparations to keep him happy if anything were to happen to her, she hugs him, she "kisses" him, she constantly takes pictures, videos, and recordings of him. It goes on.

What about this changes if she's just looking to keep her purpose vs. if she cares about Takuma?

 

[nomadicengi]

I was also going to argue a bit about only having them send a notice of terrorist intentions when the acts are being commited...but I guess they can't really pull that up for restrictions on their communication systems? I could understand some ethical concerns about the information that is transmitted, taking into account their autonomy in human relationship (until it involves commiting harm to other humans), but still. The fact that the best safeguard for a tampered robot is hoping other robots detect the risk signal it sends and proceed to plan in order to mitigate the damage is...optimistic.

Mostly since the only robots we see responding to it are robots without a purpose at that moment. Which would imply that, to some extent, if they don't obtain a purpose again, they're kind of "robot violence preventers" from that point on, until they end up destroyed during that duty. And that it is expected that at least some amount of robots end like that, basically as victims to continually build up pro-robot sentiment by helping establish that only robots tampered by a malicious human would damage others, while untampered robots would gladly sacrifice themselves to protect human life. A morbid thought.

I do think the modifications done here were only to interfere certain sets of codes in the robot that makes them follow their design parameters. If the modifications were too extreme, the manufacturer would have noticed it as well and depending on how they practice their business, they could wirelessly diactivate the said product. (Sadly, this kind of business practices is already happening IRL which is giving a lot of people headaches when they don't want to pay an exhubarant price for a simple repair)

As morbid as that thought is, they still followed their design parameters. Even the ones who were tampered with still sent the signal of something bad is going to happen. A true robot uprising is when they start to develop their own will to do it. Robot sentience is bound to happen somewhere in the future when they are given the ability to learn and adapt but they are still bound to their design parameters. Once they are cut loose from it, that's where the timer will start.

 

[Oured]

What about this changes if she's just looking to keep her purpose vs. if she cares about Takuma?

I did not question if she truly cares for Takuma or not, but rather what drives her to do so.
Unlike an organic creature, Mina is unbothered by instinctual needs to replicate or serotonin levels to keep her happy doing what she does, thus making the reasons behind her choices fundamentally different than a human being's. She's been hinting at genuine emotion throughout the manga but she words her thoughts in such a pragmatic way that it could easily be mistaken for normal sense of duty that every robot has. The "why" of the matter is the thing about her character that makes her (and any robot like her) interesting, since true emotion leads to fully independed thought, which is what her maker wanted her to achieve in the first place.

And besides, Mina did just affirm without hesitation that she'd choose Takuma's life over the lives of countless children. It's not like we can just brush that off as the usual romance without at least wondering if it's an emotional choice out of fear for his wellbeing, her own fear of losing purpose (as Satsuki very ominously showed her a few chapters back), both, or a combination of motives.

 

[Fugutron]

All this sanctimonious robo stuff makes me miss the earlier SoL chapters

 

[TheRealAlpha2]

Mina at least as far as we're lead to understand her through the various chapters has developed a unique set or rules for how she interacts with Takuma. She's not using a static form of logic, it's evolving. That is to say she doesn't process emotions the same way as a human does obviously so what she's doing can't be seen as a simple binary equation (ironically.) It's not one or the other for her, it's both.

Her purpose has developed from just serving to "caring" for Takuma and most of her actions follow a roughly "emulated" form of emotion. She has concerns for his emotional well being rather than being worried, she blocks things that could potentially take him away from her rather than saying she doesnt want to lose him, she's even shown a rudimentary form of jealousy when she's not the center of his attention.

As for the robot alert, I think the stray robots may have only been the best option in this case. Other robots in the other locations might have been better suited to stopping the trucks or simply keep their owners out of harm's way, similar to what Mina did (although she has a much more personal reason for doing so.)

 

[fennec]

I'm actually okay with this arc and like the ending. We've seen before that some people in society hate robots, and it's actually natural that would extend to terrorism. The purpose of the arc was to show that, despite what some people believe like this guy, robots still aren't inherently bad. The news broadcast further highlighted that because people's immediate assumptions were that the robot involved was manipulated, so the blame lies with whoever did that rather than the robot.

Meanwhile, I can't say this arc is fully about robots having free will. The stray robots still all wanted to serve humans first and foremost, to the point that one was allowing kids to attack it before they all made a human wall. That isn't necessarily free will, but a direct result of their programming: they're meant to be useful to humans, even to the point they're happy to die in the process.

Mina is unusual in that aspect. She still has the innate urge to be useful, BUT it's restricted to Takuma. I think she acted "selfishly" here by not joining the wall of robots, and stopping Takuma from going on. She openly stated she considered him more important than the lives of children.

I think that's the real impact this arc will have on her: the realization that she's diverging from her core programming, because she WON'T risk dying. She wants to be with Takuma, and just didn't realize it.

 

[Shareazu]

I know it all was sad and all, but that last page really drives that the biggest problem for her is that she lost her replacement. She wanted Satsuki to be there when she did more dangerous stunts and now she's gonna need to adjust for that

That's good, she needs to learn that loved ones can't be replaced. It may be illogical to her, but it isn't for humans

 

[asdfgh1111]

Don't worry guys, all of the robots are fine. They've all been transferred to a horribly cliched Dragon Quest knock-off fantasy world and have been given bullshit op powers and a slave haram. It's all good.

 

[BuyVelomobiles]

I did not question if she truly cares for Takuma or not, but rather what drives her to do so.
Unlike an organic creature, Mina is unbothered by instinctual needs to replicate or serotonin levels to keep her happy doing what she does, thus making the reasons behind her choices fundamentally different than a human being's. She's been hinting at genuine emotion throughout the manga but she words her thoughts in such a pragmatic way that it could easily be mistaken for normal sense of duty that every robot has. The "why" of the matter is the thing about her character that makes her (and any robot like her) interesting, since true emotion leads to fully independed thought, which is what her maker wanted her to achieve in the first place.

And besides, Mina did just affirm without hesitation that she'd choose Takuma's life over the lives of countless children. It's not like we can just brush that off as the usual romance without at least wondering if it's an emotional choice out of fear for his wellbeing, her own fear of losing purpose (as Satsuki very ominously showed her a few chapters back), both, or a combination of motives.

Not only do you not tell me the difference between the two things, but now we're talking about "true emotion". What are you on about, man? Explain yourself already. Do you need help putting into words? The best I can gather is that you're wondering whether she cares about Takuma as an instrumental goal, or as a terminal goal. Which, considering the Venn diagram for both in this situation is a circle, is a totally academic question.

Beyond that, I don't know what you're on about. I don't see how her motivations for doing things make her emotions "fake emotions", or how "true emotions lead to fully independed (sic) thought".

 

[winterume]

 

[SilverSour]

Noooooo smiley face Mina

 

[Curly577]

This chapter is slightly less bad than the couple previous ones, probably due to actually having the MC in this one and I'm glad the mini arc is over. I can only hope that the next few chapters won't be the robot club pondering the implications of this event.

 

[Wanderer00]

Started as a roboromance now it's a better detroit become human

I wonder if they're going to get civil rights and citizenry in the end?

 

[Sinisterdot]

As I was reading, I thought Satsuki was going to be the one to save the locked up, anger issues, robot teen. It really does feel like a waste for Satsuki, she had more potential for the story, and served as a foil to the main Miina (Satsuki situation could be Miina's endgame after Takuma dies). With what ppl mentioned earlier, the replacement idea could have continued to worked and gave Mina more freedom to do wild stuff like her 1v1 robot fight. Or maybe she has to pose as Mina because HQ gets aware of Mina going off the rails. I would've liked to see how Takuma's family reacted to Satsuki and them take her in, or maybe Takuma temporarily taking in all the purposeless robots and helping them find someone else. Though I kinda dislike the egg robot getting in the way of the main ship tbh, so all of them there could be a nightmare.

From the hints in their dialogue we are given, it seems like older abandoned robots have sentience beyond their initial programming from the their real life experience. But unlike Miina who is evolving/has a bug/etc. they still have to adhere to the "protect humans at any cost" rules, and can only gain satisfaction from helping them (I agree that in this chapter it is morbid). Even though the main couple or the robot club are unscathed, this does feel like the bad end for homeless robots and Satsuki, though they see it as the opposite, which makes things more twisted.

Idk about the main couple SoL vs the robot club droning about ethics sentiment. On the surface, I prefer the earlier chapters and focus on the main couple with the flairs of Miina acting up. The robot club, with them just talking can be boring for sure. The spice, for me at least, in SoL relationship moments can only hold as long Miina's intentions are unclear. Like ya'll were saying earlier, she likes to act like she adheres to robots logic and rules, but given the freedom she has, she chooses not to (hiding it when she can) and gets closer to being truly human like, I guess. TLDR, the main couple doesn't need to be in x amount of chapters, if the world building can relate back to them directly and move the underlying story forward. Miina has the power to truly shake the current world's robot standards if she wanted to. This also sounds like premium copium though coming from me, hoping that threads are followed through in the future, when the complaints in the now of the change of PoV and worldingbuilding are also valid. It does feel like the main ship has been anchored for awhile now.

I think the philosophical robot ethics discussions that people think are a slog, are only a slog because some readers think the new side characters are less interesting, and would rather see Miina and Takuma actions and romance progress first foremost (or for them to move the story forward). What people are missing is that their love can only progress so much until Takuma is taking advantage of Miina, or disserving himself from his uncle and parent's first impressions of their marriage. There's a physical line of past 2nd base that neither of them cross yet, probably for that reason. Even if they are married, even if Miina is different and special, even if Takuma can convince his friends/family/neighbors/HQ/etc. that Mina is different and special; it doesn't change the social and legal rules of the world they live in, so they are still perceived as unequals. The tension and drama, that enhances the romance, is how Miina acts in regarding to these rules, and whether she chooses to live as an equal or as a robot.