My theory about PRES1DENT from the book "The last human" by Lee Bacon
I've had this in my drafts for months, maybe it's the time to finally post it.
I always focus on the villains, nothing new about me, really. I'm basically the apologist of all villains out there. You're a robot? You have 90% chance to become my favourite.
A robotic villain? Bro you're mine, and if anyone touches you I'll bite their hands off.
I will try to explain this as detailed as my language barrier allows me to, since English isn't my mother language.
Where do I start though? I absolutely adore this book.
My obsession with robots? Satisfied.
My love for the trope 'Found family'? Satisfied.
My romance repulsion and thirst for anything platonical? Also satisfied.
My love for villains who have a specific reason why they are the way they are? Well, that's why I'm here right now.
I really like PRES1DENT, one of my top favourite characters in this book for sure. But the lack of reasoning is driving me insane, it's probably just me looking too deep into stuff, but I just need to rant and talk about my ideas and theories, you know?
So, what we know is that PRES1DENT absolutely despises humans, I see why he lied to everyone and hid the documents where humans were actually kind, he wanted the robots to be all together, he wanted to connect them, give them a reason why they all should work together and never be like humans, he made them all share 'something', and that something is their hatred towards humans, just like our MC stated in the book.
But why? Okay I get it, humans aren't perfect, I also like robots more than humans, but why does PRES1DENT hate them so much? Where did the sudden hatred come from? It just doesn't make sense to me, from what we know it's because humans always argued, started wars, were creating accessories that had no actual useful meaning, were "imperfect". But they were ALWAYS like this, it's nothing new, don't tell me a robot just suddenly wakes up one morning and goes: "alright pals this is starting to get really bad, humans actually suck, let's kill them all." NO, I just don't believe this, what is that sudden realization? What made them realize it? What exact "upgrade" made them get self-aware enough and take over? WHAT HAPPENED?
I have so many questions but no answers at all.
So let's just go with what makes the most sense to me:
I believe that you get ONE chance from robots, unless they are on some high level like our main group, they are gen-8 but what was the gen like 30 years ago, right? No one knows that. So what I'm saying here is that a robot is programmed to do something, especially if It's that type of robot that "sees, saves information, learns, remembers.", so basically when something UNEXPECTED happens, they corrupt(?). They will remember that situation forever and try to avoid the thing/place where it happened, so it won't happen again.
We know that robots started to talk about humans together behind their backs all of a sudden, but who spoke up first? Who was the first robot to even THINK about humans being bad? The humans never programmed robots to think that way, something must've happened that caused this sudden rebelion in one of them, who continued to spread this idea among the rest of the robots and finally caused the huge murder of all humans. Someone, who'd start to save information about the bad habits of humans from what the other robots and that one robot itself witnessed.
I'd place my bets on PRES1DENT and here's my theory why:
PRES1DENT was disgustingly betrayed by a human once.
What if he actually used to be very close to humans? What if the purpose of his existence was to protect humans? Maybe some human was his friend, maybe that human made the robot being their friend his only life purpose. We don't know anything about him, so we can only guess.
Let's get some things clear first though, robots never do anything without someone telling them to do it, they can never do something without being programmed to, behind robot's actions is always a human being. PRES1DENT knows a lot, he knew about everything, unlike everyone else. He had the whole human history saved and put it in the cube (I suppose it was him? There's nobody else who could do that.) But where did HE get it? Why is HE the leader? Did robots choose him to be the president of everything? If yes, how did that happen? Robots think all the same, they basically share a brain, then why is only PRES1DENT so different compared to everyone else? What made him so superior?
I actually really like the idea of PRES1DENT being a human's friend before the whole 'humans killing' happened, it would give him a reason, a reason why he became a villain. Let's say he trusted his human more than anyone else, he liked to help them, it was the purpose he was created for, to protect and help, but what happens if his human gets angry at him and tries to destroy him? Attack him? Or attack another person in front of him? An error would appear, he wasn't programmed and was never expected to face such a situation. He either would not react at all, or he would do what he knows the best, 'to protect', but who does he protect? A human that just attacked him and basically became the 'predator' he was taught to protect others from? I don't think so.
He's supposed to protect humans, kind souls, but this human just didn't act so innocent, they were actually dangerous.
But how is that possible? If he's supposed to protect humans, why are humans evil? Maybe this human is 'broken', not in their senses, and that means dangerous, since they attacked the robot, that can mean the human might attack other humans aswell, and dangerous things need to be removed.
He would remove the human and save the information, that there are 'broken' humans among them all. Now that the robots know this, they start noticing other bad habits humans have and how unacceptably they can act.
After PRES1DENT 'removed' his human, I'd say people would see PRES1DENT as corrupted, he just killed a human. That wasn't supposed to happen, they didn't program him to do that. That means he needs to get shut down immediately before he gets the chance to hurt more people.
But the more and more people try to shut him down, the closer PRES1DENT is to the conclusion that all humans are broken. Some virus got into their software and made them all act different. He was just doing his job, removing the 'evil' from this world. They are betrayers, so selfish. So he sends another signal to the rest of the robots.
But who never betrayed anyone? Who's now the rabbit and who's the wolf? Humans are evil and robots were always loyal to them, they were by their side no matter what and helped them.
That means robots are in the right and humans were in the wrong the whole time, they are the predators, the most dangerous beings in this world, to both themselves and everyone else.
Since PRES1DENT was the one with personal experience and basically the reason why other robots started noticing the bad in humans, he became the leader. And everyone listened, of course. He was right afterall, and they are all connected.
He needed to get rid of humans to protect others, so they all did so. Of course he realized the possibility of robots seeing the good in humans, that's why he decided to hide the files of humans being good and show only the ones where they are acting stupid, selfish and being basically useless. Just like I mentioned earlier, the same enemy connects people, so their enemy were humans.
Him keeping the destroyed houses of humans in their world and doing the daily talks about how humans were absolutely useless also makes sense, it's not just a 'reminder', it's something that makes them shut up, not question anything. Very smart move in my opinion.
PRES1DENT wasn't developed enough to know something like forgiveness, he remembers humans as monsters who betrayed and put everyone in danger and that's where it ends, no one can do anything to change his mind. That's why he was one of the only ones who still kept this opinion even after the truth got to see the light. Of course there were some robots still agreeing with him, I really like this detail, I don't know if it was written like this on purpose or not, but it makes so much sense because there are still OLD robots just like PRES1DENT, they are from the same time when he got created, the same GEN, that's why they are on his side, their 'brains' are limited at the same point. They don't know forgiveness.
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MY OWN OPINION:
I will forever feel bad for him, i'm glad they didn't kill him but I still think that what he got wasn't fair. He did what he thought was the best, he wanted everything to work and everyone to be just fine. He did all he could.
Yes, he didn't tell the full truth, but it was to protect everyone. He knew that if the now very upgraded robots saw it all, they wouldn't agree anymore, they would want humans back. And that's exactly what he could not let to happen, because he didn't want humans to use robots as weapons and turn the world into a dangerous place once again.
Honestly I wish he got a chance to change, like he'd get a human friend for example, someone alike to Emma, who would fix his trust issues (LOL). But it's understandable that it wouldn't work, PRES1DENT is a very old robot, his brain isn't as upgraded as the newest bots'. Just like I said, he probably doesn't know forgiveness and he's corrupted to the point where he can't change, he fully lost his hope in humanity, closed case.
Anyways, no idea if this book ever gets more recognition, but just in case it does, I'm the og and this post is the proof. I'm the first person to make some fan post about this book, your honor.
I'm PRES1DENT's #1 apologist and fan, because I just know there's more to him. 😴
I think here's where I cut it, It's currently 2 AM and I just finished writing this. Man, I never knew explaining something could take such a long time.
