h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Androids in Science Fiction - A1013545
Author: Atlantic_Cable - U196159

These entries replace: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1007687

As suggested it has been split into books, tv, film, androids (which I draw distiction between computers) and comtemporary.

The entries are:
Main entry :A1045766

Computers in Contemporary Movies : A1009405

Computers In Science Fiction: TV : A1045667

Computers In Science Fiction: Movies : A1045658

Computers In Science Fiction: Novels : A1045694

Androids In Science Fiction : A1013545

Hello

I have a quick correction for your bit on Cybermen:

The cybermen where originally the inhabitants of the planet mondas, Earths twin hidden behind the sun. Unfortunately the balance was unstable and Mondas drifted out of orbit while Earth remained in place. However the people of Mondas where highly advanced and as the atmosphere died, they hid beneath the surface of the planet, but this became to harsh eventually as well, and soon they started to cyber augment themselves, eventually to the point where they had to remove there emotions to cope with it.

"Some say they surgically removed their souls" Eighth Doctor 'Doctor Who :Sword of Orion" (CD)

Cybermen where always humanoid mechanical hybrid.

I'll just go back and make sure that covers most of it

Researcher PSG

Your right there motivation is survival and continuation through cyberconversion.

However technically gold only effects one set of Cybermen, the originals reacted badly to radiation, there have been instances of consentrated fire from several high energy weapons possibly dropping a cyberman, but they usually attack in numbers, if they have them, if they don't they try and make them.

They are the cold, unemotional, unyelding nightmare of the man machine hybrid

Researcher PSG

The movie "Bicentennial Man" was based on Issac Asimov's short story "Bicentennial Man", first published in Stellar Science Ficition #2 (1976). I think the section titled "The Positronic Man" needs to be reworked and should include a reference to the Foundation Series by IA.

It would also be worth discussing the Three Laws of Robotics created by Asimov and how they are seriously considered by roboticists today as important building blocks for the rules that govern robots.

Another suggestion would be to reorganize the entry in chronological order so that the reader can see the evolution of androids in the genre.

Generally, a pretty good entry.

Hi Atlantic Cable,

A lot of work here - well done!

If I might make a few comments on this one...

I think it would help if you grouped the types of android - at the moment it just reads like a list of unconnected cinematic instances when there are clear parallels to be drawn with some of them.

Pure Androids
These are androids that are artifical and resemble human form to some degree. In here, you can put Maria, C-3P0, Blade Runner, Hryten, etc.

Mechanical Men
Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still, Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet, the Robot from Lost in Space... these are androids where more of the features of humanity have been 'shaved' off a little, but still maintain a vaguely human form (arms, legs, head).

Bio-mechanical
Cybermen, like the Terminator and Robocop, are not androids. They're part of the sub-group, biomechanoids - a half-way point between machine and man that is one of science fiction's favourite creep-out horror concepts (see also Darth Vader) to show how humanity is slowly being tainted by technology so we will eventually lose our humanity as we replace our body parts with machinery. If you want a practical demonstration of this, try to get anything remotely human out of a teenager pugged into his walkman and gameboy!

Just a few specific notes:

Cybermen
Although it's really just a get-out clause in the episodes, the reason gold is lethal to them is that as a non-corrosive metal it gets logged in their breathing units. Subsequent versions of the race seem to be affected by ridiculously small amounts until their final on-screen appearance, Silver Nemesis, has them freaking out at the mere presence of gold coins - perhaps a race memory?

Maria
I'd move this right to the top. Here you should mention that the first artificial man is, of course, Frankenstein's monster, and almost every form of sci-fi android is related to him in some way (either thematically, through technophobia and fear of change, or just as a metaphor for humanity losing their souls). Maria is the first proper 'android' though, as she is an artificial creation that is trying to look human, whereas the artificiality of Frankenstein was cleary stressed as making him look anything but human.

Marvin
>> It's never explained why he's called paranoid.<<
It's kind of implicit though, isn't it? He thinks everyone hates him, and believes he was created just so that he could suffer. Of course, as you suggest, it's not really paranoia - everyone does hate him.


You seem to be covering lots of ground with this one. I'm going to take a peak at the others. Congrats on this, really impressive stuff!

Thanks for the input, I have now made a few changes.

Hi there Atlantic cable,

I have made a few notes on some omissions here.

Where are the Daleks from Dr Who?

You could also have Twiki from Buck Rogers

(and if you want to go kitch, Metal Mickey)

And isn't there the controlling ship in farscape (I have only seen it a couple of times so am not entirely sure of this one, and I know it should be more computers TV)

Regards

KJ

Except Daleks aren't androids. They quite deliberately don't have any human form comparisons. Fraid they don't even qualify as biomechanoids because of that - they're just good old fashioned monsters

But Twiki is, yep.

This kind of supports what I was saying about having intros though. Explaining that these don't represent a definitive list will free you up a lot, and then anyone who has any other suggestions can simply add them to the Conversation threads when this one goes 'live', as it were.

I like this entry! But I find that it is very varied in its treatment of the androids. There is great detail about Data, but very little about Romy for example. Perhaps you should just concentrate on the ones you know something about, then list all the others briefly in a section at the end.

You describe C3PO being the butt of jokes 'through the 3 movies'. I thought he was in all five movies so far.

There are a fair few typos:

20th Earth --> 20th Century Earth
hedgemonistic - no such word
Bisjop --> Bishop
Winnona --> Winona
Detroid --> Detroit
amstered --> mastered
rimmer --> Rimmer
mimmic --> mimic
when he Starfleet --> when Starfleet
by inevtiably --> but inevitably

"Although it's really just a get-out clause in the episodes, the reason gold is lethal to them is that as a non-corrosive metal it gets logged in their breathing units. "

Oh yeah?

From Earthshock:

Captain Briggs: We could pump all the air out of the hold.
Doctor: Uh hu, unfortunately cybermen don't need it.

And yes, that is straight from memory ()

The Cybermen don't need air because they can recycle air inside those chest units. But, as established in Revenge of the Cybermen, gold can clog those breathing units and prevent them from being able to 'breathe' in a vacuuum. Same basic effect as the solvent cocktail from The Moonbase, I expect. Whether or not that contradicts something said in Earthshock's a bit of a moot point, what with everything Earthshock gets wrong

Y'can't catch me out on Doctor Who questions, Kerr.

Jims

Ahh, continuity. Sometimes it fits toegtehr as if it were made that way, sometimes it has to be beaten into place with a sledge hammer.

That still doesn't explain why the afore mentioned gold coins and gold arrow heads kill 'em though- as the discontinuity guide pointed out, why do the coins stick in the first place?

Solvent Cocktail? Oh, the liquid plastic. It's easy to see why that clogs the system up...

The gold coins were such a daft idea...

... but I'm sure we can save this chatter for when this hits the Front Page

This is going well -

The gold coins were such a daft idea...

... but I'm sure we can save this chatter for when this hits the Front Page

This is going well -

Oops good point

In an attempt to be constructive- from the Blade Runner section-

Rachael = Rachel

attempy = attempt

I've done that and added Darth Vader, because hs is most artificial (like Robocop) but I'm not adding the Borg, because they are a balance of organic and artifial.

Hello again

One quibble about the cybermen bit, not all organic components are replaced with cybertechnology, even though a majority are. And you example of the brain as I understand it is wrong, the brain is recoditioned and reprogrammed and added to, but the basic is still organic. So basically if you opened up a cybermans head a majority of parts may be artificial, but the significant organic component remains.

Researcher PSG

perhaps a teensie mention of the Borg in the Bio-Mechanical horrors section?

The section about Data doesn't seem to tell me where he's from. I'm guessing Star Trek.

And in the section about David (AI), the other boy (Martin) is real, not a better robot.

DMT

Thanks for the input, the entry has been updated.