io9 bring us an interesting thought piece about the droids of the Star Wars galaxy, their status in society, their levels of sentience and whether or not they are free, or slaves?
There’s an argument to be made that by Star Wars reducing its droid characters to workers, the franchise is actually subtlety showing us how humans and other organics see them: as mass-produced tools who were created for labor. But because droids have varying levels of sentience, this interpretation means that in the world of Star Wars, they are slaves, which raises a number of intriguing moral questions.
Artificially intelligent beings agitating for their freedom and civil rights is a concept that’s been explored in genre fiction before, but Star Wars is uniquely positioned to tackle the idea in ways that other franchises aren’t. Unlike robots in most other movies, Star Wars’ droids are almost universally able to interface with every other piece of sophisticated technology (including one another) found across the galaxy. The droids are, in a very real way, a part of Star Wars’ infrastructure, giving them a unique vantage point because of the vast amount of information they’re able engage with and the fact that, in theory, they’re functionally immortal.