In a book I’m working on, a major character was artificially created and I’m wondering how to portray that. Externally he’s human, but beneath the skin there’s biomechanical ‘machinery’. He was raised in a laboratory for much of his life, and as he was made rather than born he’s never dealt with things like loose teeth or a cold. This character won’t have this revealed until near the end of the story. Essentially, how should I keep him ‘human’ and sympathetic instead of a pure ‘robot’ character? How should I demonstrate his origins?
The Idea of artificial or created life is an old Idea . If you include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , It is one of the oldest science fiction ideas . P K Dick had lots of artificial humans in his stories , the most famous was used in the film Blade Runner. I could go on . The point is what separates most of the stories , is the stories premise . Why has your artificial life been created , and why do you need to keep it a secret ?.
In this setting, biologically modified organisms fill a variety of niches from warfare to construction to pets and food. Human fabrication, on the other hand, is highly illegal, and a fabricated person would not be well-loved by the general public. Therefor, he conceals his origins.
Your artificial human can uphold human morals- and would need to, I think, to blend in among humans- even though he only does so because he is programmed that way; I think that can introduce some compelling themes as well as keep him 'human' and sympathetic. There is some pretty good natural language processing in AI today, so I imagine your artificial human could easily have a typical human speech pattern. if it looks like a human and speaks like a human, then... good enough to convince a reader, I think. Depends... who created him and why?
[QUOTE="mar-iposa, post: 1886317, member: 95070”] Depends... who created him and why?[/QUOTE] I won’t give too much away, but I will say that he’s only a prototype...
Fair enough. I think it would be neat to have the character recount his early memories the same way a human recounts their childhood, if it were to fit with his personality. You could also have it be as simple as another character finding the research that went into creating the artificial human prototype. You could have it be both, and play with the a contrast of hearing his origins in a personal and scientific way. Another idea is finding a flaw in his creation and have that 'out' him as artificial. Perhaps there is a portion of life that his creator did not predict he'd ever be involved in, so his creator didn't give him the logic needed to reason through it. Seeing as he's a prototype, it's likely they haven't found all the bugs in him yet.
An artificial human would only approximately match the characteristics of a natural human. His movements might be a little awkward as if he hadn't quite recovered from a serious injury. Without a comprehensive upbringing involving other people, his social skills might be limited. He may lack tact and have great difficulty engaging in small-talk. His emotions would be approximate too, so he'd overreact in some circumstances and be indifferent in others. People may assume he's autistic or has learning difficulties.
The novel Friday, by R.A., Heinlein has an AH protagonist. In this book, unlike the movie Blade Runner (or the book it was based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) it is told in first person by the protagonist, but like Blade Runner, is persecuted.
Use contrast. If it's strong first show it at its most vulnerable, but if it's going to be defeated, introduce it at its full glory.