Quote and Curly Have "Souls"

After taking a closer look at the story, I theorize that Quote and Curly have "souls". Now I have a few examples here:
• Curly was raising and protecting the Colons by herself like a mother.
• When Quote defeated Toroko when rabid, no music played. He was deeply saddened having to kill her and watch King die after. Granted, music played when Igor was beaten, but he didn't know he was a rabid Mimiga at that point.
• Both were willing to help the characters they came across, even if it was not part of their main objective.
• The "Iron Bond" item.
• After the Core fight, Curly stood still while Quote drowned. She was either devastated or horrified at what the Doctor might be doing to them.
• On that note, Curly saving Quote from drowning, and returning the favor.
• The two have opposing personalities that yin-yang each other.

Does anyone else agree that Quote and Curly have more than advanced programming, or is this proof enough?

 

You're going to have to define what a "soul" is for me before you convince me they have said "souls".

 

You're going to have to define what a "soul" is for me before you convince me they have said "souls".

"Soul" being what makes a human...human. Unique characteristics and traits that separates one from another.

 

"Soul" being what makes a human...human. Unique characteristics and traits that separates one from another.

I don't really think there's anything to prevent a robot from having a soul based on this definition, given that it's capable of making decisions and such. Hell, by this definition most animals have souls too.

You should probably give an example of what a human character (in Cave Story) did that shows they have a soul, and an example of what a robot did/would do that shows they do not.

 

I did list them, or at least what I speculate as proof. Other robots are restricted to their basic routines and/or limits, like Malco, who is only able to make bombs.

 

like Malco, who is only able to make bombs.

Malco isn't only able to make bombs. He can also throw parties, as evidenced by his dialogue if you talk to him later in the game (and the ending credits scene with him activating the other bots).

 

True, but I never said the other robots have restricted personalities. Only restricted objectives and skills. If you look at Quote and Curly, they're able to do more than one objective, like Quote helping out Santa when he was looking for Kazuma.

 

Basically what Zett says after everyone's gone from the plantation, and how Misery comments Quote is different from the other robots by being capable of feeling for others. Humane qualities. Most robots are just machines doing whatever they're programmed to do, or emotionless killers in the case of Cave Story. Quote and Curly were the only ones with feelings, kindness, etc.

 

"Soul" being what makes a human...human. Unique characteristics and traits that separates one from another.

We are not the only creature in the universe to exhibit individual behaviour, emotions, and personality. If you truly believe that then you seriously need to start paying attention to the world around you.

 

Yes they have soles in their shoes... Oh that's not what were talking about? Okay, Alrighty then.

It would make sense because they really care for others and whatnot. Why else would quote save the mimiga? Was it his job? Why would Curly have panties? It's not like robots need a reproductive system. Unless their reproductive system is actually a USB port to upload and download data from quote to curly... Enough talking about that, Curly obviously has the full set of emotions that were coded into her. Quote has the ability to use his emotions, He just rarely uses them. They move fluidly like humans, unless they are using the legs that Hot and Ready created to show how you can walk to get pizza, Those have fluid movement. A soul is one of those things that allows something to move, but the soul is trapped inside of the body. When the soul somehow escapes the body, it is probably molded into the shape of the body. That's how people see ghosts. My mother tells me that there was someone I was friends with named "Tommy" And I was actually just staring at a wall when I spoke to it. It wasn't just an overwhelmed imagination because I was only 1 year old at the time and I could barely walk or talk, thus my imagination was not fully developed yet. Quote and all the other robots have souls, They act like humans and do that job pretty well... But here's the question... How did they put a soul into a robot?

 

All living things that have an advanced nervous system, including certain sections of the brain, would have souls. I guess you could say that Quote and Curly's programming allows then to either simulate or recreat the properties of having a soul, but unless their actuall programming is as close as possible to an actual brain, they don't have real ones. The thing is, the brain functions with a massive amount of data, so it may or may not be likely, because it depends on the technology available 10 years prior to the events of Cave Story.

 

Quote and curly are both androids made to pass as humans, so they certainly have human like minds. But as to a soul by oxford dictionaries definition ("The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal." I know its not really the oed, but the definition looks quite sound), while they probably will last far longer than any human, I highly doubt their minds are immortal.

 

This post is spoiler heavy. The rules do expect you have either seen or have knowledge of all of the endings in Cave Story, but if you don't spoiler alert.

Spoiler

I think that rather then having souls, the protection of others is simply one of their main directives, as is their emotions. If you refer to Miakid's reign, all of the robots (excluding Quote and Curly) were sent to recover the crown, with no regard for life of any kind. Quote and Curly were sent to destroy the crown instead, most likely to prevent a major catastrophe from occurring. I think we can use this objective to infer that the protection of others is one of Quote and Curly's main directives, because of the fact that they also take those same measures in the events of Cave Story (Quote helping in the village, Curly taking care of the Colons, etc). Remember that they both had amnesia, so how would they be able to remember that the protection of others is their job? They don't, it's simply part of their programming. It's etched into them. If Quote in particular didn't posses that quality (say due to the fact that he was human), he probably would not give a damn. Let's not forget about the bad ending either, the one where you escape with Kazuma. It's an ending, but it's a bad one. It's bad because by leaving the island, you were directly ignoring your main directive to protect others. Which leads me to another interesting theory of my own, I infer that Quote (during the events of cave story), does not posses the ability to feel pain, and / or has a limited capacity for emotion. Why? If Quote and Curly could only wound Miakid 10 years before the events of cave story, how was Quote able to take down the doctor and his flunkies almost single handedly, without Curly by his side in battle 10 years later? I infer it has something to do with Curly's ability to feel pain. When you see her in labyrinth after beating her in sand zone, it's pretty obvious she's in no good condition, she even says herself that she cannot go on without slowing you down. If that's the case, then how is Quote able to fight on despite theoretically almost reaching 0 health several times in his adventure? If they both have similar programming, shouldn't Quote have been hospitalized several times during the game? I think something happened during the battle with Miakid that changed Quote so slightly from his female counterpart Curly. During the battle with Miakid (or afterwards), Quote's ability to feel pain was lost due to some kind of mechanical damage he received from Miakid. His ability to feel pain was what made him lost the fight with Miakid (same case as Curly). Only after losing this ability to feel pain would he be able to go on and defeat the doctor 10 years later. This could also extend to his emotions. In most facial artwork in the game you'll see Quote giving a blank face most of the time, while Curly has a wide range of facial expressions including but not limited to happy, sad, and angry. This could also extend to some of the traumatizing events that happen to Quote in the game (nearly drowning in the core room, being forced to kill Toroko), Quote was able to move on past these events due to the fact that he's a robot. No matter what repercussions there are, there are still people who need to be protected.

So in conclusion, I infer that Quote and Curly do good things as a result of their programming, not because it was their choice. But some of that programming inhibited them from doing what needed to be done, and only after Quote lost a part of his programming could he be able to defeat the Doctor. There are probably a few holes in this Theory that need to be filled by the way, so don't expect this to be 100% right.

 

This post is spoiler heavy. The rules do expect you have either seen or have knowledge of all of the endings in Cave Story, but if you don't spoiler alert.

this is implied for everything on these forums. Not to mention that we've mentioned Qoute's name repeatedly now

Spoiler

I think that rather then having souls, the protection of others is simply one of their main directives, as is their emotions. If you refer to Miakid's reign, all of the robots (excluding Quote and Curly) were sent to recover the crown, with no regard for life of any kind. Quote and Curly were sent to destroy the crown instead, most likely to prevent a major catastrophe from occurring. I think we can use this objective to infer that the protection of others is one of Quote and Curly's main directives, because of the fact that they also take those same measures in the events of Cave Story (Quote helping in the village, Curly taking care of the Colons, etc). Remember that they both had amnesia, so how would they be able to remember that the protection of others is their job? They don't, it's simply part of their programming. It's etched into them. If Quote in particular didn't posses that quality (say due to the fact that he was human), he probably would not give a damn. Let's not forget about the bad ending either, the one where you escape with Kazuma. It's an ending, but it's a bad one. It's bad because by leaving the island, you were directly ignoring your main directive to protect others. Which leads me to another interesting theory of my own, I infer that Quote (during the events of cave story), does not posses the ability to feel pain, and / or has a limited capacity for emotion. Why? If Quote and Curly could only wound Miakid 10 years before the events of cave story, how was Quote able to take down the doctor and his flunkies almost single handedly, without Curly by his side in battle 10 years later? I infer it has something to do with Curly's ability to feel pain. When you see her in labyrinth after beating her in sand zone, it's pretty obvious she's in no good condition, she even says herself that she cannot go on without slowing you down. If that's the case, then how is Quote able to fight on despite theoretically almost reaching 0 health several times in his adventure? If they both have similar programming, shouldn't Quote have been hospitalized several times during the game? I think something happened during the battle with Miakid that changed Quote so slightly from his female counterpart Curly. During the battle with Miakid (or afterwards), Quote's ability to feel pain was lost due to some kind of mechanical damage he received from Miakid. His ability to feel pain was what made him lost the fight with Miakid (same case as Curly). Only after losing this ability to feel pain would he be able to go on and defeat the doctor 10 years later. This could also extend to his emotions. In most facial artwork in the game you'll see Quote giving a blank face most of the time, while Curly has a wide range of facial expressions including but not limited to happy, sad, and angry. This could also extend to some of the traumatizing events that happen to Quote in the game (nearly drowning in the core room, being forced to kill Toroko), Quote was able to move on past these events due to the fact that he's a robot. No matter what repercussions there are, there are still people who need to be protected.

So in conclusion, I infer that Quote and Curly do good things as a result of their programming, not because it was their choice. But some of that programming inhibited them from doing what needed to be done, and only after Quote lost a part of his programming could he be able to defeat the Doctor. There are probably a few holes in this Theory that need to be filled by the way, so don't expect this to be 100% right.

the miakid theory isn't canon

 

True, but I never said the other robots have restricted personalities. Only restricted objectives and skills. If you look at Quote and Curly, they're able to do more than one objective, like Quote helping out Santa when he was looking for Kazuma.

But plenty of living, breathing people have restricted objectives and skills? Like pretty much anyone who works for a living?

And Malco shows that he doesn't have "restricted objectives" since he wants to throw a party all on his own, which seems pretty demonstrative of this poorly defined concept of a "soul" that you keep throwing around.

Most robots are just machines doing whatever they're programmed to do, or emotionless killers in the case of Cave Story. Quote and Curly were the only ones with feelings, kindness, etc.

But all robots only do whatever they're programmed to do, that's literally the definition of a robot. Any exhibited behaviour that one would identify as "feelings" or "kindness" would just be a direct result of their programming.

I don't think these robots have these special "souls" you guys want them to have. Frankly, I don't think humans have it either, but with how poor your given definition of a "soul" is it's hard to say that anything *doesn't* have a soul.

 

their cpus are neural net processors; learning computers. but for other robots the switch is preset to read-only.

 

I did list them, or at least what I speculate as proof. Other robots are restricted to their basic routines and/or limits, like Malco, who is only able to make bombs.

I think MALCO has a soul. I define a soul as giving these qualities:

• Conscience/morals.
• Self-awareness as well as awareness for others.
• Love for other beings that is not instinctual, like an animal's relationships.
• Wisdom- the ability to clarify without a doubt between right and wrong.
• Emotion.

As such, MALCO has a soul. Or at least, he does after he is hit on the head.



I personally think Quote and Curly are the ones being referred to by Zett, the old Grandpa mimiga.

 

Too little information to work with... All the characters in Cave Story seemed lively.
We need a turing test for further testing...

 

But all robots only do whatever they're programmed to do, that's literally the definition of a robot. Any exhibited behaviour that one would identify as "feelings" or "kindness" would just be a direct result of their programming.

I don't think these robots have these special "souls" you guys want them to have. Frankly, I don't think humans have it either, but with how poor your given definition of a "soul" is it's hard to say that anything *doesn't* have a soul.

Well... your interpretations seem somewhat literal, but you do have a point. Again, I believe what is being referred to is what causes Misery to say we're 'different', because we care for other people whereas any other robot would have no sense of regret about just letting Sue die. It's not about life-force, or programming, or some science-based argument like that, it's supposed to be more from an emotional, philosophical point of view. It is something mentioned in-game. But, what you say still makes total sense. If Quote is just a robot as well, the humane qualities he exhibits are just because of his programming, just as the killing qualities were because of the killer robots' programming. So there's a parallel to be drawn there, and it was just because Quote was supposed to be humane, he was, not as if he had a choice or anything. So yes, what you say is logical. I never thought about it like that before. Thank you.

 

This thread is useless without a definition