Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

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FlyingPenguin
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Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

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Just a random rant. Don't get me wrong, I love Westworld. I also loved the Battlestar Galactica reboot. BUT as an engineer I go bonkers watching these show, unless I turn off the analytical part of my mind.

One tenet of both shows is that the androids are indistinguishable from humans, and thus leads to many plots involving androids pretending to be human.

BSG has the most human of androids. In BSG, apparently the only way to detect a Cylon is to use some complicated device that requires parts of a nuclear bomb. N'kay. You would think that there would be lots of ways to detect a Cylon. Let's see. They can plug a fiber optic cable into a vein and communicate with computers, so one would think that the proteins comprising blood or vein walls is not human based, and thus would react strangely to human antibodies. One or both of them apparently have light emitters and photo sensors as part of their cellular structure.

They have a radio somewhere in them (biological in nature I assume, but with fantastic range of tens thousands of kilometers or more, at a hell of a bit rate) that allows them to back themselves up when they die (but strangely doesn't allow them to communicate with each other). You'd think that would be an unnatural structure in their body. There's probably some others, but hey I'm okay with that since the Cylons were specifically designed to fool humans.

Westworld's hosts are, however, true androids, and they do have some artificial parts in them. We're told that the only easy way to detect them is a scanner that detects the explosive embedded in one of the bones in their spinal column (assuming it wasn't deliberately left out during manufacture). Okay, but there's also a dense ball of CPU and memory in their skull, plugged into a socket. Oh, and they also contain a mesh network radio that allows them to share updates and commands, and interact with control tablets. They are also hideously strong and very tough.

A simple XRay machine should do the job. That brain ball should stand out on a TSA body scanner like a sore thumb. Or maybe use a spectrum analyzer to see if they're radiating radio waves? Or just have a mesh radio query every human nearby, and broadcast a continuous shutdown command anywhere you don't want one of these things.

I also can't imagine their blood is chemically or biologically the same as ours. Their bodies don't seem to decompose if they're shut down, so it's probably not the same as real flesh. Yeah I know they're stored in 'cold storage' when not in use, but cold storage was just a big warehouse. No indication of actual refrigeration. Humans didn't need to bundle up in there. We've also seen plenty of hosts killed and left out in the hot desert for days or weeks. While they do need to be repaired for whatever damage that 'killed' them, they don't seem to rot. A simple skin or blood sample would probably look very different than human under a microscope.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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Re: Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

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Tell us how you really feel about this. ;)
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Re: Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

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Where did the technology touch you?
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Re: Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

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They inappropriately touched his diode.
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Re: Android Technology rant about Westworld (and BSG)

Post by FlyingPenguin »

What no Android phone jokes? :D
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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