Man vs Machine (continued)

     I felt that in my last post I tried to explain a broad subject without using many examples to help you understand it all. Using my favorite, friendly neighborhood serial killer Dexter Morgan, I will try to discuss an aspect of the man vs machine argument. If you are a die hard fan or have ever watched one episode of Dexter you will probably find out that Dexter is a serial killer who works as a blood splatter analyst for the police. He has a sister who also works for the police and also has a girlfriend/wife with two step kids. With that brief description of dexter's life I will now get back to the man vs machine discussion. In the first season of Dexter when you first meet dexter, you notice that his personality is cold and meticulous. He is that of a machine when he kills, which he mostly justifies, in the way he prepares the "kill room" and performs the deed. His precision in his craft is so accurate that he has no worries of even the slightest hint that the police will ever find out about his nightly hobby. This personality and precision is held constant for most of the first season of Dexter.
      However as the show continues into further seasons and dexter starts becoming more involved in his personal life, you notice that his craft starts break down. He starts to make more and more mistakes to the point where he endangers the life he so painstakingly built for himself. If you analyze these later seasons and try to find the reasons for his deteriorating abilities, you will notice that his machine like habits start to dwindle in certain instances. Why is this you might wonder? Why would a cool, calculating killer's skills start to sag? Well the main reason I observed when I watched the seasons myself was that as the show goes on, dexter begins to develop deeper emotions and empathy for people. In each season after the first, dexter starts to develop stronger feelings for his loved ones, becoming more human in a sense. And as this transformation becomes more and more evident to the viewer, you notice that his mistakes become more evident. The empathy that dexter develops in turn becomes his biggest hindrance while also becoming his greatest accomplishment. Dexter knows the dangers he puts himself into by trying to help more people with his craft besides himself but he continues to do it because I feel it helps him feel normal. His life in turn starts to mean something besides that of just a coverup and this makes dexter happy to an extent. In the end, dexter is happy to lose some of his mechanic instincts in order to feel human for his family because what is life without the love of and for others.