whats the difference between the vr robot and the robot if one is downloaded from the other? isn't a program the same program whereever its run? as for reality, you could ask the same question, aren't both real? and the advanced mecha at the end don't seem like cold logic machines, they wanted to do what was right by david.
at the end they mention that he was built so young or whatever, he is frozen as a child with a childs mind in other words, not to mention a very primitive model, he cannot understand or probably handle the reality. so they tell him a story.
Advanced Mecha: David, I often felt a sort of envy of human beings of that thing they called "spirit." Human beings had created a million explanations of the meaning of life in art, in poetry, in mathematical formulas. Certainly, human beings must be the key to the meaning of existence. But human beings no longer existed. So we began a project that would make it possible to recreate the living body of a person long dead from the D.N.A in a fragment of bone or mummified skin. We also wondered, would it be possible to retrieve a memory trace in resonance with a recreated body? and you know what we found? We found the very fabric of space-time itself appeared to store information about every event that had occurred in the past. But the experiment was a failure, for those who were resurrected only lived through a day of renewed life. When the resurrectees fell asleep on the night of their first new day, they died again. As soon as they became unconscious their very existence faded away into darkness. So you see, David, the equations have shown that once an individual space-time pathway had been used, it could not be reused. IF we bring your mother back now, it will only be for one day, and then you will never be able to see her again.
David:Maybe, she will be special. Maybe she will stay.
Advanced Mecha: I thought this would be hard for you to understand. You were created to be so young.
David:Maybe the one day will be like the one day inside the amphibicopter. Maybe it will last forever.
Advanced Mecha: David, you are the enduring memory of the human race. The most lasting proof of their genius. We only want for your happiness. David, you've had so little of that.
David:If you want for my happiness then you know what you have to do.
eh looked it up, the end sequence is supposedly 2000 years after the last human. being that the last human probably lived atleast a couple hundred years after david was first made...enough time to make truely human level mecha atleast...a long time. the advanced mecha just blew some peoples minds i guess. people don't think in deep time very well. just think...your pc would be like magic to someone just 100 years ago.