SU A.I. Theory
Alright guys, time to dig up an old theory of my from a long time ago that I’m sure will never be addressed in Steven Universe, however seems rather interesting to me. As a heads up, I haven’t seen any other theories about this anywhere so although I claim this version if you have seen another or have come up with your own I wouldn’t mind a link to read it.
The theory is about, as the title suggests, that gems are not only artificial life but even more so artificial intelligence. The latest reveal with White Diamond really nailed it for me.
I’ll start with a tl;dr to make it as simple as possible to get across. Gems are artificial intelligence created by an ancient and highly advanced civilization not unlike our own. Now I do not believe that all Gems were created by these people, I believe that it was only one and that was White Diamond. After her creation however the civilization may have either been wiped out by their own vices or by an unfortunate apocalyptic level event that destroyed them. White Diamond being left alone for more than likely decades if not centuries more than like decided to create more gems to replace her fallen creators. Alright for those of you who have decided to keep reading I’ll break each one of these thoughts here. So the reason I always believed that Gems are artificial intelligence is solely based on gem biology. Although they have physical projection, can eat, sleep and dream it seems all of these things are simply for aesthetic more than for function. Even using their “bodies” to manipulate things around them seems to again to make them closer to sentient life forms. The most important piece of evidence though is the fact that they lack the ability to breed or replicate like living organisms. There is only one way for a gem to be created and that is through mechanical means. The question becomes, if they can only be made in a “factory” like kindergarten, where would this process have started? Surely we do not believe that these machines sprung from nothing or that the first gem(s) suddenly popped out of the ground to produce these machines. This leaves only one answer, intelligent design.
Now of course I can’t begin to imagine what civilization could have created the gems so I won’t go into that. However I do believe that not unlike earthlings they constantly flexed their intelligence and created many a weapon of war and salvation. I believe that White Diamond was to be their greatest scientific achievement. An artificial intelligence that could mimic life and required no energy after its initial “birth”. We don’t even have to imagine all the applications of such lifeforms. However I believe that one (especially one as powerful as white seems to be) would be plenty and although they may have studied the creation of more I doubt they would have much need to follow through.
Now I will admit that we have only seen White Diamond once. She seems to be the most robotic of all the gems so far which only seemed to make the theory more plausible to me. Since she would have been created with functionality in mind over personality and/or any sort of person-hood. With that said, I do not believe that WD didn’t/doesn’t have ANY personality or anything, however I do believe she doesn’t process things in the same way that other sentient life does. As I stated earlier I believe that the people that created her must have died out. Although this could have happened in an infinite number of ways, for the sake of this theory I subscribe to the idea that they destroyed themselves. This would leave WD alone with no one to interact with for god knows how long. I can only imagine that this loneliness would give her plenty of time to contemplate lots of things including her place in the universe and those that created her. With nothing but time an opportunity I believe that she would have tried to create life... the only way she knew how. The only difference was that these gems that she would create would be made to replace those who created her, only more perfect. They would be orderly, obedient and they would all have a purpose. WD only mistake would be designing them with sentient life in mind, an error that would not be readily apparent for millennia.
Okay this is where the theory gets a bit wild and dives into more than just the A.I. portion, so if you are only here for my explanation of that, you just read the gist of my thoughts on that.
Now having started life I believe that she would see the mistakes of her creators as an inevitability for all organic life. She would calculate the chances of such organic life forms existing or coming to prominence to be extremely and uncomfortably high. The only measure that could garentee that this would not happen, was if she sent her own gems to colonize and police the universe. This may have been where Blue and Yellow came into play. They would be her right and left hand in her endeavor to populate the universe with her gems.
Pink on the other hand... I believe Pink was a sort of experiment gone awry. WD may have created her with the intention learning what a Gem with complete free will would be like. Although YD and BD would have had some ability to act on their own accord, they more than likely were built with a prime directive leading there actions. This would keep them from ever doing anything that would get in the way of WD goal of colonizing the universe. PD on the other hand was more precious because she would have something that no other gem would have and that was choice. A choice to “play games”, a choice to disguise herself, a choice to start a rebellion and ultimately a choice to feel love and empathy for things not gem oriented.
