There is a rich tradition of robots/computers in science fiction literature and film - for example, Gort in 

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Now at least some, though not all, human beings are moral agents, beings we hold responsible for their actions or whom we characterize as good or evil people. It is arguable that some of these films (The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey) depict their robots/computers as moral agents. Could a robot or computer achieve the status of moral agency or is the moral gap between man and machine impossible to bridge? What are the characteristics that (1) current robots/computers lack, but (2) we, or most of us, possess, that account for moral agency? Could robots/computers ever come to possess those characteristics? Why or why not?