Hatrack River Writers Workshop   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Open Discussions About Writing » In the tradition of Goatboy...

   
Author Topic: In the tradition of Goatboy...
Robyn_Hood
Member
Member # 2083

 - posted      Profile for Robyn_Hood   Email Robyn_Hood         Edit/Delete Post 
Here's a nosey question...

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?


Posts: 1473 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
JmariC
Member
Member # 2698

 - posted      Profile for JmariC   Email JmariC         Edit/Delete Post 
Did I know I was an android?

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.


Posts: 233 | Registered: Jul 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Ahavah
Member
Member # 2599

 - posted      Profile for Ahavah   Email Ahavah         Edit/Delete Post 
I thought very hard about this. Honestly, I would keep doing what I'm doing. Although I would also want to know:

quote:
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.


Posts: 239 | Registered: May 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
hoptoad
Member
Member # 2145

 - posted      Profile for hoptoad   Email hoptoad         Edit/Delete Post 
It devastated me.

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.


Posts: 1683 | Registered: Aug 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
hoptoad
Member
Member # 2145

 - posted      Profile for hoptoad   Email hoptoad         Edit/Delete Post 
Would I still have same urges and apetites?

Is there some way I could get viable genetic material from the original and in some way or another reproduce?


Posts: 1683 | Registered: Aug 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
NMgal
Member
Member # 2769

 - posted      Profile for NMgal   Email NMgal         Edit/Delete Post 
Hmm. I guess the closest thing to compare the situation to would be if you were to find out you were adopted...but you found out when you were in your twenties or so. It would be shocking. You would either want to find out where you really came from, or you'd think, 'Hey, life is good, family is good, I'll just keep going with the flow'. But you'd probably still be pretty devastated while you got used to the idea.

Enough rambling!


Posts: 97 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
TL 601
Member
Member # 2730

 - posted      Profile for TL 601   Email TL 601         Edit/Delete Post 
What would I do?

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.


Posts: 237 | Registered: Jul 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
TL 601
Member
Member # 2730

 - posted      Profile for TL 601   Email TL 601         Edit/Delete Post 
Then I think I'd go berserk and just....

oh, no...

oh, you devil. Now I've got a short story to write. Damn you.

(*steals premise*)

(*and runs off to Belise*)


Posts: 237 | Registered: Jul 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
quidscribis
Member
Member # 2240

 - posted      Profile for quidscribis           Edit/Delete Post 
It's Belize if you're referring to that small country in Central America.

Um, Robyn_Hood, how'd you find out my secret? I thought I'd covered it pretty well . . .


Posts: 83 | Registered: Nov 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
TL 601
Member
Member # 2730

 - posted      Profile for TL 601   Email TL 601         Edit/Delete Post 
Ah, the "pointing out misspelt words" post. How cool.
Posts: 237 | Registered: Jul 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
benskia
Member
Member # 2422

 - posted      Profile for benskia   Email benskia         Edit/Delete Post 
I'd watch Bladerunner again & look for the answers in that.
Posts: 329 | Registered: Mar 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
ChrisOwens
Member
Member # 1955

 - posted      Profile for ChrisOwens   Email ChrisOwens         Edit/Delete Post 
That would really depend of the rules of the millieu. Since andriods do not exist in RL, what are the ideas in your fictional world?

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...


Posts: 1275 | Registered: Mar 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
It would explain a lot...and I don't think it would particularly bother me. I wouldn't do anything different because of it.

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.


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
thexmedic
Member
Member # 2844

 - posted      Profile for thexmedic   Email thexmedic         Edit/Delete Post 
The first thing I'd probably have to do is explain to my wife that our family plans are probably not going to pan out...

[This message has been edited by thexmedic (edited September 20, 2005).]


Posts: 205 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Brinestone
Member
Member # 747

 - posted      Profile for Brinestone   Email Brinestone         Edit/Delete Post 
Have you read Tunnel Under the World?
Posts: 814 | Registered: Nov 2000  | Report this post to a Moderator
Robert Nowall
Member
Member # 2764

 - posted      Profile for Robert Nowall   Email Robert Nowall         Edit/Delete Post 
I once had an idea like that (in my recent "Internet Fan Fiction" period), that I thought of as a hommage to "Tunnel Under The World."

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.


Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Doc Brown
Member
Member # 1118

 - posted      Profile for Doc Brown   Email Doc Brown         Edit/Delete Post 
If I found out I was an android that could pass for a human it would be the happiest day of my life!

The first thing I would do is make a backup of my brain. Then I would start shopping for upgrades.


Posts: 976 | Registered: May 2001  | Report this post to a Moderator
Robyn_Hood
Member
Member # 2083

 - posted      Profile for Robyn_Hood   Email Robyn_Hood         Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks for all the feedback.

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...


Posts: 1473 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Robert Nowall
Member
Member # 2764

 - posted      Profile for Robert Nowall   Email Robert Nowall         Edit/Delete Post 
Oh, the stories are worth a see. Maybe the movies are too, but I've got to admit, I've never seen more than short bits of "The Matrix" or "BladeRunner." (I read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" a good decade before the movie came out.)
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
goatboy
Member
Member # 2062

 - posted      Profile for goatboy   Email goatboy         Edit/Delete Post 
Did I hear my name used?

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.


Posts: 497 | Registered: Jun 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Noctivigant
Member
Member # 2843

 - posted      Profile for Noctivigant   Email Noctivigant         Edit/Delete Post 
Depends if I still had a reason to maintain moral behaviour.

If not, I'd start working on THE LIST. (people who have pissed me off)


Posts: 39 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
hoptoad
Member
Member # 2145

 - posted      Profile for hoptoad   Email hoptoad         Edit/Delete Post 
I love the idea of an android remembering a certain 'deposit' he made at a sperm bank. Only it was not him but his original. The ensuing legal battle to use it for reproductive purpose with his new 'love' and finally a commando-style raid into the frosty vault... well maybe not the last bit.

[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited September 25, 2005).]


Posts: 1683 | Registered: Aug 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Inkwell
Member
Member # 1944

 - posted      Profile for Inkwell   Email Inkwell         Edit/Delete Post 
I suppose I'd see what my 'body' was capable of first. If superior to ordinary human physiology, I would then go out and buy a large quantity of garishly colored spandex and kneepads (can't have enough of those, you know).

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
-----------------
"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).]


Posts: 366 | Registered: Mar 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
JmariC
Member
Member # 2698

 - posted      Profile for JmariC   Email JmariC         Edit/Delete Post 
...buy a large quantity of garishly colored spandex and kneepads... I'm 'Bleeding A Milky-White Substance' Man.

I agree that the name needs work. '-)


Posts: 233 | Registered: Jul 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
BISHOP! &*@@*#% you!

I think we're getting off track, though.


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
Robyn_Hood
Member
Member # 2083

 - posted      Profile for Robyn_Hood   Email Robyn_Hood         Edit/Delete Post 
That's all right (sort of). Bishop was a great guy...

Thanks for the added feedback. I think I've figured out where I'm going with this.


Posts: 1473 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
keldon02
Member
Member # 2398

 - posted      Profile for keldon02   Email keldon02         Edit/Delete Post 
I'd devote the rest of my life to being a time tourist. I'd reset my power mode for alternating one day on and one year off so I could fast forward. If the hardware could take it I might even set it for one day on versus 100 to 10,000 years off.
Posts: 245 | Registered: Feb 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Elan
Member
Member # 2442

 - posted      Profile for Elan           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
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."


Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Paul-girtbooks
Member
Member # 2799

 - posted      Profile for Paul-girtbooks   Email Paul-girtbooks         Edit/Delete Post 
Hey Robyn,

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).]


Posts: 203 | Registered: Aug 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
Robyn_Hood
Member
Member # 2083

 - posted      Profile for Robyn_Hood   Email Robyn_Hood         Edit/Delete Post 
Paul,

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.


Posts: 1473 | Registered: Jul 2004  | Report this post to a Moderator
Survivor
Member
Member # 213

 - posted      Profile for Survivor   Email Survivor         Edit/Delete Post 
Well, there's the whole "Why didn't anyone tell me?" phase. But once you settle that...nothing has really changed. You're still you, right?

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.


Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999  | Report this post to a Moderator
Elan
Member
Member # 2442

 - posted      Profile for Elan           Edit/Delete Post 
I read a book a looong time ago. I thought it was called "The Andromeda Man" but I could be wrong. It was about a man who had an ordinary life, and slowly began to suspect something was wrong. Eventually he learns he's an android. It was one of my first sci-fi reads, and that would make it over 30 years old. *sigh*
Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005  | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2