Aliens-style fembots

[D.Olivaw]

Does anyone find the idea of fembots based on a technology like that of the synthetics in the Alien(s) franchise interesting? I remember H. Breukmann wrote a story (Three Pawns) on that basis that turned out pretty well. There's the prospect for some different sorts of malfunctions at any rate, since they are based on micro-hydraulic actuation of synthetic muscle rather than electrically actuated servos or synthetic muscle. Fluid loss or overpressure due to various reasons would have totally unique results and the reaction to impact or extreme accelerations would differ significantly as well.

Asking to gauge interest in possible vignettes/stories.

[General]

Personally I'm not a big fan of fembots full of Elmer's glue. While they were very realistic (could pass for human) in the films damage/malfunctions seemed too catastrophic. Call was able to take a hit and keep going but the best anyone seemed to do was push the goop back inside.

For me a lot of the fun of a malfunction is the ability to then fix it. Perhaps I don't understand these types of bots well but once the shell is broken they just seem like a mess to me.

[D.Olivaw]

Point taken about the aesthetics, General, but I'm not entirely sure about the non-repairability. In Aliens 3, Bishop notes that he "could be reworked" even though he's little more than a mangled head at that point. I think in the case of Ash vs the Nostromo's crew and Bishop vs. the alien queen the problem was that the damage was catastrophically traumatic. Even then, Bishop remained functional despite missing everything below the ribcage. Call, on the other hand, just took a bullet.

As I understand it, synthetics are made up of an electronic CPU + sensory/nervous system with the microfluidics (transported around the body by an artificial circulatory system) providing motive power, cooling, and lubrication. The interesting thing about this is that it allows for a degree of graceful degradation; they can leak or be damaged but still function, simply at suboptimal levels.

Another option is to go slightly more conventional and have a more Ghost-in-the-Shell aesthetic for their innards.

[wjbaines]

I quite like the Ash-style idea. And it wouldn't be too difficult for a studio to do something like that, I don't think. Just get a bunch of mild or water with white food-coloring, some... I don't know... spaghetti...? Ridley Scott, who directed Alien, had some interesting commentary about Ash on the DVD release. I think I'd definitely pay to see a re-enactment of the Ash "robot reveal" scene.

[D.Olivaw]

I hadn't thought about it for filming, wjbaines, but it's certainly a possibility. IIRC they used a mixture of milk and yogurt in the movies, which gave the right texture and consistent opacity. The problem was when it got hot under the set lighting it turned really gross. Poor Lance Henriksen was sick as a dog after all the takes of the bisection scene.

Sadly I don't have access to the director commentary and can't seem to find a copy on Youtube; what interesting things did Scott say about the Ash character?

[dale coba]

The term "microhydraulics" comes to mind.

The Aliens hydraulics seem to have large volumes of fluid to release.

As the engineering is headed, I don't think the individual sub-units, the lines to take pressure, will not stand to lose nearly so much fluid.

- Dale Coba

[wjbaines]

I had forgotten about this, but I found some links helping to explain how the robots in the Alien universe are supposed to work. Most interestingly, the scene in which Ash malfunctions and is revealed/destroyed is widely regarded on the intertoobs (and confirmed by director Ridley Scott) as a sexualized event.

This is an interesting link:
http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/1 ... f-ash.html

It explains some of the director's thoughts about Ash's character in the first Alien. I think the despite the physical differences between Alien-style robots and the more conventional sort were typically see around here, there may be crossover in terms of robot-psyche. Here's a teaser from that link:

"Ridley Scott; If you create a model as perfect as that, it will have, almost of necessity, a form of "emotional life." You don't have only a physical and mental mechanism, but a machine that is capable at any moment of uncontrollable emotional reactions and which will take certain decisions by itself. Like HAL in 2001. Here no one has considered that in building a robot, it had been given a psychological life, with worries and problems. This perfect machine starts to have feelings when faced with the behavior of humans. It starts to be interested in the women and to have desires that can not be expressed. Behind the assault on Ripley is an attempt to solve these tensions."

Even people who study gender and culture are in on it. Here are two more interesting links:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5WZwCt ... ex&f=false

http://books.google.com/books?id=k_H3vL ... ex&f=false

Any google search for "alien ash sex" will turn up more.

[dale coba]

Sounds like Ash was a sexualized assault, not an eroticized robot. In that context, the spurting is blood or a gross bodily fluid. I don't think that's useful imagery for erotic stories. If the fluid sprays from the right area, a fembot might be seen as squirting - but squirting is still not very widely eroticized (even though it seems an uncontrollable expression of orgasm).

- Dale Coba

[slvsara]

Does anyone find the idea of fembots based on a technology like that of the synthetics in the Alien(s) franchise interesting?...

I may be a bit 'late to the party' but I have to say that I would find a fembot/artificial person with the physical appearance of Annalee Call
( http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Annalee_Call ) of some interest.....Perhaps it is the short hair. I tend to be a sucker for such configurations.