What would you do if you found out you weren't a real person; instead you are an android filling the place of someone who died?
If I didn't I probably wouldn't believe it until it was proven that I was an android. Once proven I would probably get away from everyone I knew, and anyone who knew about me and try to figure things out. Honestly, I doubt I would survive learning that I was a glorified copier.
If I knew I was an android but thought my personality unique I would have serious self doubts and would try to figure out if I had any personality traits unlike that person, to try to become an individual. I would try to start life over again.
Is there a shelf life? Do I get that info?
Am I expected to live forever like this, or was somebody going to unplug me at some point?
Am I expected to be put in the shop and reprogramed as some other dead person? If I knew that my life was just a temporary program I would toss myself into the sea before they could take me back.
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Am I expected to live forever like this, or was somebody going to unplug me at some point?
Then, I would demand to know where I was made. I'd march back and demand a few tweakings, such as removing 40 pounds, do a little update on lungs and legs so I could run faster and longer, and possibly get blue eyes.
And then I'd go about my regular life, although I would possibly enter more races.
Wonder about my memory of warm hugs and hot soup in winter. Wonder where the original's memories ceased and mine began. Most importantly, I wouldn't let anyone else know that I knew.
Is there some way I could get viable genetic material from the original and in some way or another reproduce?
Enough rambling!
I'd immediately re-read the 19 stories Philip K. Dick wrote with that exact same premise and marvel at their similarity to my real life.
oh, no...
oh, you devil. Now I've got a short story to write. Damn you.
(*steals premise*)
(*and runs off to Belise*)
Um, Robyn_Hood, how'd you find out my secret? I thought I'd covered it pretty well . . .
I've a rough draft (so it shows it's not a good model to follow) about terraforming gone 'wrong'. It's a parady. Basically, the mayor knows he is a biot, but it's against the law for him to believe it. He knows that the superhero Birdplane is really monacle wearing Mild Manners, but he is disallowed in "knowing" it. So when the Terraforming Controller allows him to know what he knows, he is very much relieved. As I said, not a good example...
Here's something to consider. If an android isn't a perfect replica of the person who died, maybe it's natural for the truth to eventually come out and "explain a lot". If the android is a perfect replica of that person, maybe there'd never be a reason for the truth to come out.
[This message has been edited by thexmedic (edited September 20, 2005).]
I never got around to writing it, but I mentioned it to a couple of people. The curious thing is they all thought it resembled "The Matrix."
I suppose the old cliche is true: there really is nothing new under the sun.
The first thing I would do is make a backup of my brain. Then I would start shopping for upgrades.
Haven't read any Philip K. Dick, so maybe I should.
Haven't seen "Bladerunner", so maybe I should.
Haven't read "Tunnel under the World", so maybe I should.
Hmmm, I guess I'll be busy for a bit...
Hmmm. What would I do? I guess it would depend on how good the technology was at the time. Do these androids have feelings?
You could also flip this idea. What would you do if you thought you were an android and suddenly found out you were actually dead? Perhaps your brain pattern was placed on an android so you could serve someone. Sort of a robo-cop type thing, just taken a lot farther.
If not, I'd start working on THE LIST. (people who have pissed me off)
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited September 25, 2005).]
There...you've got the world's first real superhero. Look, I'm 'Bleeding A Milky-White Substance' Man.
The name might need a little work. For now, just call me Bishop.
Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous
[This message has been edited by Inkwell (edited September 26, 2005).]
I agree that the name needs work. '-)
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BISHOP! &*@@*#% you!
I think we're getting off track, though.
Thanks for the added feedback. I think I've figured out where I'm going with this.
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I suppose I'd see what my 'body' was capable of first.
Like Data, one might be curious to see if one was "fully functional."
I would definitely hold off on writing whatever story it is you have in mind until you've read Philip K. Dick; he really did say pretty much everything there was to say on the subject of human/android identity, as well as playing around with the whole notion of what was or what wasn't real.
When I read your initial post I immediately thought of his short story "Impostor".
Ten years ago I wrote an unofficial sequel to Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? called Drowning in Electric Blues which featured two Rick Deckards. Alternate chapters featured alternate Deckards. The novel took place on Mars with one of the Deckards hunting down the other. At no point do I tell the reader which is the 'real' Deckard and which isn't. I wanted to explore the notion that it didn't matter who was the 'real' one and who wasn't, but rather who was the most worthy of the two: who was the most 'human', whether they actually were human or not. Of course, the way in which everything ties up, and the way in which both characters are portrayed, leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that both of them are flawed and were, basically, shits, so the whole question of who was the better of the two became a mote point.
Incidentally - and confusingly! - I only wrote this novel, my third, in order to break a writer's block I had on what turned out to be my fourth novel. It's, eh, confusing... so nevermind.
A buddy of mine is friends with almost all of the well known second-hand SF bookdealers in the UK. He mailed each of them a copy and they were all quite taken with it. I was researching on how to contact Paul Williams, the literary executive of The Philip K. Dick Estate when, not five months after I completed the manuscript... K. W. Jeter released Blade Runner 2: Edge of Human. Oh, well. His sequels followed on from the movie, where as mine followed the original book. But, still...
So read a lot of Phil Dick before you tackle an android story. Nothing worse than spending loads of time writing something you think is totally wickedly original, only for an editor to write back saying, "Dick did this fifty years ago. Try harder."
As to what I would do if I discovered I was an android. Man, I'd freak at first... but, then, after you had your temper-tantrum and wailed about how unfair the world was, the situation wouldn't have changed. You'd still have to deal with it. So I might become resentful and turn to crime, if it turned out I had strengths and skills that humans didn't. Then I might go through the whole phase of seeking out one of my own kind - hey, Rachael Rosen, are you out there!
... But you said we would be filling the place of someone who died. Now, that's intriguing, 'cause I'd want to know who this real person was and why it was they had a duplicate made. You could get a whole cloak-and-dagger novel out of that.
[This message has been edited by Paul-girtbooks (edited September 29, 2005).]
Thanks for the recommended reading. This thread is for a flash story I wrote back in April or May and am only now getting around to editting. I had considered expanding the plot and making it into a short story and needed to deal with the possible psychological implications of finding out that what you think is your life, is actually a lie; you are not who you think you are...
As it is, I've decided that story isn't in me to write and have decided to simply revise what I already have instead of building on it, at least for now.
You have me intrigued by Philip K. Dick and I will have to add him to my list of must reads.
As for the "androids have superpowers by virtue of being artificial" bits, I should point out that repairing/rebuilding/etc an android assumes a level of technology that would allow you to do most all the same things with a human body.