Ever wonder why Star Wars doesn't have matrix-like, terminator-like, or Ghost-in-the-shell like droids? Well, Star Wars droids are modelled off of a 1950s World's fair view of a complacent droid in servitude, content with performing a well defined function for its owner. You would wonder why droids weren't super intelligent, evolving far past other life forms in a civilization that has stood for thousands of years.

Well, there are a couple reasons for this. First, most droids are programmed with a specific function in place with only enough AI to serve that purpose and no other. The more advanced droids do have AI, but also have a "creativity damper" that is referenced in Star Wars Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter novel. Most droids routinely have their memory wiped to avoid eratic behavior. We see this in both ROTS, the KOTOR games, and undoubtedly elsewhere in other EU.

The droid in this novel, I-Five, also appears in the Medstar books that occur during the clone wars. He is, for all considering, almost human and many characters in the books mistake him for so. Yet, even I-Five has a certain amount of servitude towards his friend. Later on he becomes more independent, but also never shows any ill-will towards sentient life forms. I-Five is about as close as we get to Ghost in the Shell and questioning whether he is sentient or not and what is the difference between him and someone with a soul (obviously he will never have a single midichlorian, but otherwise he acts just like a sentien being). Nevertheless, there are droids programmed to kill, such as the droids from the trade federation and IG-88 - a bounty hunter droid during the OT period, based on General Grevious' guards design.

The droids in use during the clone wars stand out from IG-88 and I-Five as they are not independent thinkers. In fact, as we see in the movies, they cease functioning when they loose connection to a master control ship in orbit. This couple with regular memory wiping, leaves me to deduce that people in Star Wars cannot rely on individuality in a droid. Perhaps they are scared of droids rising up and forming a terminator-like super computer that eradicates them. Or perhaps, the independence leads to erratic behavior that causes more trouble than its worth.

One thing is for sure, there is definitely something similar to Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics. Not that Star Wars droids follow these exact laws, but they are capable of having core laws that define the bounds of their behavior. We can also say that the more independent thought a droid has, the more expensive and rare it becomes. You might be able to infer then that the AI must be state of the art (and hence expensive), and it's so advanced that no terminator-like situation could occur from droids.

If we can agree on these assumptions on why there is no super artificial mind ala matrix or terminator, then that brings me to cyberpunk and Ghost in the Shell. We know there is plenty of artificial limbs, from Luke, to Anakin, to Grevious. However, we don't have any parts of the brain being swapped out for a computer. I woudl wager that the cyberpunk aspect of droids has not been part fo the genre of Star Wars because it was something unheard of during the conception of Star Wars in the 70s and 80s. Cyberpunk is something more recent.

There is some circumstantial evidence as to why cyberpunk wouldn't be possible in Star Wars. First, there's enough different species that it would be very tough to generalize the technology - thus making it very expensive. Secondly, the computer systems are all very different so plugging your brain into an alien system wouldn't be a good idea. Third, the technology in star wars is so far advanced that just about anyone can push a single button and get whatever they want from the computer. After all, a mere child can build a protocol droid that has limited AI. Perhaps computers and AI have "disappeared" just like the motor has disappeared in our times. That is, the motor was once a miracle invention, now it is embedded in almost everything including childrens toys. You don't even know how the motor works, you just hook it up, and it turns. Perhaps after all these thousands of years, the same has happened in Star Wars to artifical intelligence and other software needed to run everything.

R2-D2 goes around jacking into every computer he finds. However, as C3PO warns him, he shouldn't trust another computer. There is probably a limited star wars internet - holonet - run by the republic/empire and largely controlled by the government. Other then that, it's apparent that each world probably has its own computing/network infrastructure.

Perhaps Isaac Asimov and George Lucas have a good vision of what robots should end up looking like, and the Matrix / Terminator are the nightmares of what happens when we ignore our own safety or focus on war/destruction.

Update from meab4 (thanks for the e-mail!):

Here is something to think about re the role of droids or at least robotic body parts: why didn't Darth Sidious pick up Vader's arm and legs and have them reattached rather than replaced by artificial parts? Since the percentage of midichlorians in the body is directly correlated to the effectiveness of the person at controlling the Force, it is illogical for these limbs filled with midichlorians to be replaced by robotic ones. This should certainly be possible with the technology available, especially since the wounds are perfectly clean and even cauterized. There are only three answers that I can see:

1. Lucas wanted to make Vader weaker than the Emperor as part of the betrayal of Anakin and so his redemption could come through killing the Emperor rather than his rise to supreme power, and this is the way Lucas chose to do it (trusting to the willing suspension of disbelief of his audience),

2. The limbs rolled down the hill into the lava and were destroyed (I don't remember this in the movie - did I miss it?) but this doesn't explain why Anakin didn't retrieve his hand in II which was not shown as destroyed,

3. There is some property in the light saber which makes reattachment impossible or which destroys the midichlorians (least likely, I think).