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

No, they already had Martin, but he was cryogenically frozen or in stasis or something waiting until the Drs found a cure for the disease that would end his life. So his parents got AI David instead. Mraculously, the Docs managed to cure Martin, so he re-entered the lives of the family, now including David. David got pushed out of course, so he ran away. Poor little robotic sod.

Thanks. I watched the movie, but I think I fell asleep at that point.

It was such a wierd movie. Good, but wierd.

That's near the beginning. You didn't miss much after that.

so this is where the rest of your stash is, cable!

er, i've just got this little bit regarding the 'positronic man'. is your discussion based on the movie or the book? 'cause if you're referring to the book, amanda called andrew 'andrew' because she didn't like it that he had a serial number for a name. she picked the name because andrew had 'an n, and a d - and an r?'. although her older sister melissa protested that it was childish, sir gerald martin indulged her because it was the trend for people to give their robots names (JN robots became janes or johns; QT models became cuties etc).

oh, and andrew lives for slightly more than 200 years. in the movie he dies on his 200th birthday/anniversary; in the book, he dies shortly after(he admitted that he was weak enough to time his death in such a way that he would live past his 200th year). also, in the book, he engineers his own dying-and-death by removing the insulation layer that protected his brain from the metabolic forces acting in his body, his reasoning being that every part of the body could be replaced without a human losing his 'human' status - except for the brain, which must inevitably die. i found the movie version (the blood thing) somewhat lame.

there's no such person as portia in the book, by the way! in the book, little miss (amanda laura martin)'s grandchild is paul charney, who remained unmarried until his death. and her son was george, who (unlike lloyd in the movie... lloyd was the name of her husband in the book) got along rather well with andrew. (although i don't suppose he ever quite got used to andrew wearing clothes!)

(i have been ranting, haven't i? i am so sorry. 'the positronic man' is one of my favourite books, and i've read it like at least a dozen times in the last six years or so...)

(oh, and regarding marvin the paranoid android... i don't know what became of him in the radio series because i was obviously too young to turn on the radio back when they first aired it, but he 'died' in 'so long, and thanks for all the fish' after reading god's final message to his creation - which was 'we apologise for the inconvenience', by the way. and if you're wondering what he died of, it was probably old age, since he'd been sent back and forth in time so many times that he was several times older than the universe itself )

oh, and with regards to data and what became of him in 'star trek: nemesis' - perhaps there's another science-fiction rule there somewhere: if a character gets killed, he/she is mysteriously resurrected in the following movie/episode/scene, although the explanations never *quite* satisfactorily tell you how/why. i'm sure there was a *reason* why data's 'brother' appeared in that movie...

hey, and you never mentioned what's-his-name karel carpek!

Thanks.

I have made the alterations to Asimov's Positronic man and Marvin.

And who is karel carpek?

A good idea for an article, a few suggestions. In the introduction you write “The Borg, from Star Trek are bio-mechanical, but since they start as organic and are then made into part-machine creatures, they are not listed here." Under this you would have to exclude Darth Vader as he started as pure organic and the Cyberbmen from Dr. Who. Maybe you should NOT have Bio-mechanical listed under android (as a type of android) but as its own distinction.

With David from AI you have a nice little break down, you should probably have this for each example or lose it for David to keep it consistent.

Kryten is from what book/show/movie? I ask, one, because you make him out as an interesting character and I would like to check the story out, and two, because I am sure others will want to know.

I don’t consider Frankenstein as an android or bio-mechanical as he was made from parts of dead people I think he’s just a monster. Although he is one of the first instances of someone making a man creature with science and not magic.

Finally your headlines switch back and forth from the android in question to the story they come from. (ex. You have Data for Data but AI for David) You may want to consider how you want to use your headlines. If you use them for the name of the book/show/movie you be able to group different androids from the same book/show/movie under one heading (ex. Darth Vader C3PO)

A lot of information, good work.

(just thought of something else. Since your entry is “Androids in Science Fiction” maybe you should consider dropping all the cyborg (Bio-mechanical) characters and save them for “Cyborgs in Science Fiction” (I anticipate this would be your next entry if you did this) because there is a lot of information to cover in just androids and cyborgs separately)


your friendly neighborhood

karel carpek was the originator of the whole robots thing, cable. you could try googling his name - i'm sure there are plenty of sites about him somewhere...

agent x, kryten is from the british comedy science fiction series 'red dwarf'. the red dwarf books are still available in bookstores, i think... at least, they were the last time i checked. great stuff.

I'll look into karel carpek.

I have now seperated the Cyborgs and androids.

Is this ready to be picked, Atlantic_Cable, or are you still working on it?

Yes, this is ready. Thanks for asking.

Just one thing: Andrew "The Positronic Man" (1992) should really have 'The Bicentennial Man' as the title, as that is the title of the short story, the book it was expanded into, and the movie.

Thanks! I've changed the entry.

Might it be worth mentioning the android 'David' in the film Artificial Intelligence - a lovely Pinocchio type story about a mechanical boy (Mecca) who goes gets ejected from his 'family placement' when the human son returns and who spends the rest of the film trying to return to where he was loved. David was programmed to love his family and is bewildered when he is abandoned in the woods.

The film explores some ethical considerations and is really quite moving (if you like that sort of thing).

Links, if they're useful.

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/9480/ai.htm

http://www.boxoff.com/scripts/fiw.dll?GetReview?&where=ID&terms=5452

The ending was a disapointment.

Did you read right down to the end, ZSF? David is the last android in the entry...

I thought I had!

Might be worth saying that the android was 'imprinted' on its human mother.

Yeah, I didn't see that part of the film so I may have missed a very good joke there.

Oh, the imprinting bit wasn't funny. His 'mother' was told that once done, it was irreversable, ie he would love her and only her from that day forth and couldn't be returned to the factory as not suitable. He was programmed to learn, like a normal boy, but would always remain that age. What would happen to him once he outlived his parents was briefly mentioned, but no-one paid much attention to it.

Probably why I missed it!