Tripping the Rift: Cultures: Synthetics

Synthetics are the workhorses of the galaxy. They do all the menial and demeaning labour so that the biologics don’t have to. They come in three flavours; robot, android, and cyborg. Synthetics have little rights. Cyborgs have more say then androids, who are a few rungs higher than dirt. The dirt is still better off than the robots!

If you were to meet a synthetic in a pub, they’d be the staff. The robot would be the underpaid busboy, cleaning table after table. But unlike real busboys, the robot wouldn’t be disgruntled, since the poor sod is happy to please the owner. An android would be the bartender, with quite some skill at mixing drinks. And if yer lucky, it’d look like Six. Finally the cyborgs would be the burly bouncer waitin’ to throw your drunk ass out on the street. Despite their poor status in the galaxy, most enjoy their pitiful existence. Their programming makes them happy to follow the orders of their organic masters. It’s possible they may share the same beliefs of Kryten in Red Dwarf, the belief in a robot afterlife. Stupid synthetics, everyone knows there’s no such thing as robot heaven.

There are a few exceptions to this synthetic bliss. Namely Gus. Gus began as any other robot, happy to do his job. But after all the constant abuse of slaving for Chode, he became aggravated with his status in life, or lack thereof. Synthetics have the problem that if they are abused by incompetent organics too long that they will develop a superiority complex, and subtly rebel. The dysfunctional “crew” of the Jupiter 42, is one such environment. Normally an owner would scrap heap a malfunctioning robot like Gus, but Chode is too damn cheap to buy a replacement!

Like their names suggest, robots are the simplest of synthetics. They are barley humanoid and therefore are treated as such. Androids do look human and are allowed more rights. They are often used when computer must interact with organics. Six is an example of an android, and she can interact with me anytime.

Finally are the cyborgs. These are organics with robotics enhancements. They enjoy the most freedoms but still suffer socially. After all, who’d want to dance with a geezer with a 40 pound claw for a hand?