WALL-E — what are robots “meant for”?

Last week, some e-pals and I were discussing ‘Religion for the Robots,’ a recent Sightings column by Robert M. Geraci. One of the topics that came up was whether robots would be directly responsible to God or, rather, to their human creators — or both.

Then, on Saturday night, I went and saw the sneak preview of the new Pixar film Ratatouille, and before it, there was a teaser for WALL-E, which comes out next year. I have embedded a YouTube copy of the teaser below; the tagline is: “After 700 years of doing what he was built for, he’ll discover what he was meant for.”

That’s a fascinating distinction. It is common in some circles to say that God is the Intelligent Designer of all life, and to say that God is the one who gives us purpose — but to suggest that WALL-E’s design and purpose are two different things, with presumably two different sources, could open up whole new areas of theology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVsCmI99QQ
Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly.