Hubert Dreyfus is the senator for the state of Michigan, that encompasses Detroit City, where the RoboCop franchise is set. He is also a secondary character from RoboCop (2014).
Role of the film[]
Elected to represent the state of Michigan in Washington D.C., Hubert is the creator and upholder of the Dreyfus Act, a national law that forbids robot use for police and military ends in the United States, based on the lack of empathy the machines would have when upkeeping law enforcement. This often got him in odds with robotics corporations, namely OmniCorp and its CEO, Raymond Sellars, who wish to further robot sales and contracts in the U.S., something the Dreyfus Act clearly bars.
By the time that RoboCop was unveiled to the public and it demonstrated incredible efficiency in crime fighting, Dreyfus was convinced that it was an actual stunt by OmniCorp to sway public opinion concerning mechanized law enforcement. However, as he tried to firmly defend the Dreyfus Act and it's importance of the organic element in law enforcement, he was constantly talked and even shut down by right-wing programs, notably the Novak Element, a clear supporter of OmniCorp.
After RoboCop exposed the Detroit Police Department's connection to recently deceased crime boss Antoine Vallon, exposed in the Novak Element show, the Dreyfus Act suffered a near-repeal in the Senate, with votes overwhelmingly favoring the repeal. The Act was only upheld, in the end of the movie, due to the President's direct intervention, whom vetoed the repeal based on testimony from Dr. Dennett Norton on the atrocities committed in the RoboCop program.
Personality[]
Hubert's character is a standard, concerning one, though it is clear he firmly stands for his Dreyfus Act creation, especially due to the fact that machines had no feelings and no understanding of life and death or right or wrong, thus they could not reason or understand beyond their programming, therefore they could not be entitled the power to take a human life. This often made him quite unpopular with pro-mechanized police supporters as well as companies like OmniCorp.
Trivia[]
The name "Hubert Dreyfus" also refers to an American philosopher who specialized in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and the Continental philosophy of Heidegger, Foucault, and others. He famously came out against AI in his book What Computers Can't Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason (1978).