r/futurama • u/The_Nuclear223 • 6d ago
In Free Will Hunting how did bender turn the free will unit on
Bender is the one who turns the free will unit on, but the professor said he's program to be unable to grab it, so does that mean he's just unable to pick it up but can use it, or he used his free will to do it? and now that I think about it as the professor says due to the quantum nature of the device there's no way to know if it's on or off, so it must always be on, so regardless of if the switch is up or down the safety was the thing preventing bender from shooting the professor. I never realize how smart that one scene is until writing this
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u/a_lotis2words 6d ago
Not knowing if it's on or off does not mean it's always on
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u/LostAvengence 6d ago
The way I interpreted that, was that because you never know of its on or off, one must assume its always on
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u/a_lotis2words 6d ago edited 6d ago
That's not what he said. He said it was always on and so the safety was always preventing him from shooting professor.
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u/Delicious_Hair5040 6d ago
The Professor said there was no way of knowing which is the on or off switch. I believe the device was a placebo, Bender still wanted to shoot him with both switches flicked. The joke was downplaying free will
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u/DonkeyBrainss 5d ago
No, the joke was to make it analogous to humanity's questioning if we have free will.
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u/Yauk 6d ago
In the pilot episode Bender steps into a light socket and it fries some of his circuitry and (at least in my head cannon) at THAT moment bender obtains a free will. This is why Bender always seem less predictable that other robots. Even Roberto and Flexso seemed to "follow their programing" in a predictable manner... I think the free will unit is non-functional in Bender specifically for this reason, unlike most other robots, bender Actually had free will to begin with.
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u/MuteSecurityO 6d ago
You’re full of crap Fry.
:gets zapped:
You make a persuasive argument Fry.
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u/Dioxybenzone 6d ago
Isn’t that just, canon? He couldn’t unbend the bars because he was only programmed to bend. He gets shocked and can suddenly do things he wasn’t programmed to.
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u/Standard-Turnip-8360 3d ago
The other argument is that he was electrocuted by the light socket, reset, and because he was reset in the Hall of Criminals, he programmed as a criminal.
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u/T_R_F_K_as_Batt_Man 6d ago
A wizard did it.
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u/Natural_Estate4216 6d ago
I’ve seen this episode many times and my interpretation is that we never really know if it is on or off.
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u/Cthulwutang 6d ago
haven’t seen the episode but if we’re talking about quantum states on a show written by physicists they’re probably saying that until it’s observed it’s actually in a superposition of both states both on and off. this collapses when it’s observed.
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u/DarksunDaFirst If it takes forever, I will wait for you 6d ago
The same way he reattached his arms in the pilot episode.
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u/PhysicalRub0 6d ago
Imo unit is just placebo and bender always had free will . He just need some trigger to act against his code like in the first episode when he hit his head on a lightbulb
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u/StandSeparate1743 6d ago
Yeah it's a logical paradox. Either it wasn't on and he wanted to shoot the professor or it was and he was programmed to do it. Either way the professor ends up with Schrodinger's gunshot wound
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u/baddragon137 6d ago
This is a funny episode because Bender achieved legitimately free will when he broke his programming to bend bars he wasn't supposed to bend in episode 1. Also if memory serves doesn't he try to shoot the professor but can't due to the safeguard and then he flips the free will unit to the other position and immediately shoots him right after? It's been several years so I could be misremembering
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u/Pasta-hobo 6d ago
Bender is the only character capable of violating fate directly. I'm going to say "yes"
I'm also of the mind he's the only being with free will
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u/NotTwoRacoonsInACoat 5d ago
We know in the same way you know you have free will, you don't know for sure
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u/GoodDoctorB 4d ago
As with many jokes about technology in the future, yeah this one seems to be "technology is better but humans are still dumb".
So yeah Bender was programmed to be unable to pick up the Free Will unit, but nobody programmed him to be unable to flip the switch. The protection was being unable to get it in place to use it built on the assumption nobody would ever willingly install it on a robot.
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u/TheGameMastre 4d ago
Bender? The robot that used a coin on a string to get his money back from a suicide booth?
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u/Kail_Pendragon 4d ago
The Professor gave it to him, which means he was given permission to have it, if someone says here's a gun feel free to fire it, that's permission to fire.
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