One must, at some point in his life, thought about why it is that the humans seemed to be the most advanced living thing on Earth. It is because the man was the only creature to have ever tried to understand the world, tried to create a relationship with God, tried to control his own destiny. It is this intellectual difference that has make man different from the rest of the world. Even the man's very own technology: machines and clones do not possess this strange curiosity of man to attempt to delve deeper into the way of the universe. This is showed in many of our movies and TV shows of our time, often comparing mankind with technology. These includes the cartoon show Digimon, presented for younger generations, and movies like AI and Matrix, targeted for older viewers. They all distinguish the man from the machine, and attempt to show why mankind is so much more unique.
Digimon is a story that revolves around a group of kids who are transported into a "digital world" where the monsters and locations where all merely digital data, that could be destroyed or inherited by others. The big antagonist behind the minions of every little group of the cartoon series always had no purpose except to destroy and suck up enough digital data, so they could travel to the world of humans, and control that as well. This desire for the digital monsters to come to the "real" world indicates that as intelligent and powerful as they can be, they will never come close to being a true human with emotions. Likewise, the Digimon that the "Digi-Destined" kids where paired up with, each can only transform to the champion and ultimate stages when their human partner was in danger, or through the "Digivices" that they carry. Although they show affection and loyalty to their human partners, it is ultimately the kids who find the different stones, thus allowing them to "Digivolve" into the ultimate stage. Also, each of the "Digi-Destined" was on a shaman's journey: each of them had a problem, and was "chosen" because they needed to discover themselves.