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Detroit: Become Human

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Why does the guy openly brag about androids pushing people out of academic and medical jobs then immediately acts like being asked about the rising unemployment is some faux pas topic he doesn't want broached. Dude you just admitted that your putting professors and nurses out of business. It's not like the latter is one of the fastest growing professions today or anything.

If the writers don't see a link between the concepts of androids putting certain fields out of work and a rising unemployment rate and treats them as seperate things then this story is going to have problems.
 
serra2 said:

Hey, the second video is out, in which Super Uncanny Valley Girl gets interviewed. Everything is creepy, from her face, to the stilted voice acting of everyone involved, to the comments on the video (Seriously, those comments are NSFW).
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I get the feeling that the interviewer was sweating bullets the entire time.
 
Reveen said:
Why does the guy openly brag about androids pushing people out of academic and medical jobs then immediately acts like being asked about the rising unemployment is some faux pas topic he doesn't want broached. Dude you just admitted that your putting professors and nurses out of business. It's not like the latter is one of the fastest growing professions today or anything.

If the writers don't see a link between the concepts of androids putting certain fields out of work and a rising unemployment rate and treats them as seperate things then this story is going to have problems.
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It doesn't help that this means he's going to be seen as ripping off Humans, where the proliferation of androids has pretty much erased the blue-collar job market and is poised to obliterate academic careers as well once the company making them collates enough academic data to put into their upcoming line of teacherbots.

Really, Humans is basically Detroit: Become Human as made by a competent screenwriter; it certainly beats the piss out of any Quantic Dream I've seen.
 
Honestly if you have robots pushing people out of academic fields you need to basically be transforming your society into Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism or something because otherwise what the fuck sort of jobs are people even going to have at that point?
 
Teen Spirit said:
Honestly if you have robots pushing people out of academic fields you need to basically be transforming your society into Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism or something because otherwise what the fuck sort of jobs are people even going to have at that point?
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yeah, I mean, something like the androids probably would cause mass unemployment, but... academic jobs? Really?

Is there some kind of pressing need to automate people acquiring liberal arts degrees? If robots are intelligent enough that they can replace professors, shouldn't literally every other job already be fully automated by now?

Literally the only way this makes sense to me is if this is the backstory to some stellaris Rogue Servitors backstory.

edit: I mean, why even bother with a rebellion because at this rate they'll be running the world in a few years?
 
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serra2 said:

Hey, the second video is out, in which Super Uncanny Valley Girl gets interviewed. Everything is creepy, from her face, to the stilted voice acting of everyone involved, to the comments on the video (Seriously, those comments are NSFW).
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"They have something I could never have."
"Really? What's that?"
"A soul."


Great, so we are going to get booted off our planet, live in spaceships, and wear skintight suit that make our women great waifu material.
 
tankdrop24 said:
yeah, I mean, something like the androids probably would cause mass unemployment, but... academic jobs? Really?

Is there some kind of pressing need to automate people acquiring liberal arts degrees? If robots are intelligent enough that they can replace professors, shouldn't literally every other job already be fully automated by now?

Literally the only way this makes sense to me is if this is the backstory to some stellaris Rogue Servitors backstory.

edit: I mean, why even bother with a rebellion because at this rate they'll be running the world in a few years?
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serra2 said:
Okay, Cage has shocked me. I thought we were going with silly ghost nonsense, but nope. It's vampires.
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It's almost as if he hasn't given the world building much thought or something...
 
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Teen Spirit said:
To give some amount of credit the actual city looks a bit more futuristic than I initially though. Still raises a question of why the suburbs still look like the worst of Detroit today and one of the guys living there can afford one of them.
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Those are actually recreations. The people that live there are history nerds.

Also, super-fast information blue blood. I think I just reached Nirvana for a few seconds, and what I saw there was a giant sign that said: "Eat shit, humans."
 
tankdrop24 said:
yeah, I mean, something like the androids probably would cause mass unemployment, but... academic jobs? Really?

Is there some kind of pressing need to automate people acquiring liberal arts degrees? If robots are intelligent enough that they can replace professors, shouldn't literally every other job already be fully automated by now?

Literally the only way this makes sense to me is if this is the backstory to some stellaris Rogue Servitors backstory.

edit: I mean, why even bother with a rebellion because at this rate they'll be running the world in a few years?
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The basic idea is "why would we need to pay meatbag doctors or teachers when we can just replace them with infallible robot slaves who have all existing knowledge on their field uploaded into them and constantly updated?"
 
So I was curious where that bit came from and here it is
2018: Elijah Kamski creates Cyberlife
A start-up led by a young researcher named Elijah Kamski relocates to Detroit in order to create the first intelligent domestic Android.
2022: "Chloe" model is first to pass the Turing test
The android 'Chloe', created by CyberLife, becomes the first android to pass the Turing Test by having a conversation with humans who could not tell they were speaking to a machine.
This technological breakthrough is made possible by 'Blue Blood', a chemical solution that mimics the functioning of human blood but several thousand times faster, distributing information and energy throughout the machine much like human circulation.

2024: Cyberlife markets first android
The first Android comes off the CyberLife production line in Detroit. The ST200 is a personal assistance model that can speak several languages and perform most tasks a human could accomplish. Experts anticipate the androids will cost $65,000 per unit, but most expect that price to drop quickly as demand increases and manufacturing improves.
2027: Cyberlife announces the sale of 1 million androids
Demand for CyberLife's androids has exploded since the first model was released. Detroit-based CyberLife announces the sale of its one millionth Android, alongside the release of five new models designed to serve in fields as diverse as domestic assistance, higher education and medicine.
CyberLife markets an entry-level model at $4,999, democratizing androids for the general public.

2029: "Android Act" voted at the American Congress
Congress voted the Android Act establishing the terms of use, duties and responsibilities of manufacturers and owners of androids. Given the proliferation of these technologies in both public and private domains, the passing of a law had become a top priority for the government.
Androids are now obligated to wear distinguishing clothing in addition to the LED on their temple.
2030: Cyberlife stock reaches record high
CyberLife closes trading with a market valuation of $850bn, making it the most valuable company in the world. With new models being released and marketed on a regular basis across the entire country, the Detroit-based giant is expected to continue growing at a phenomenal pace and is tipped to be the first company to break the trillion dollar mark.
2031: The American army orders 2 million android soldiers
The US government orders 2 million androids for use in the infantry, with a view to reducing human casualties, with android soldiers. At the same time, Michigan (home of CyberLife) announces the purchase of 5,000 androids to assist law enforcement departments. These androids will perform subordinate tasks and will not be allowed to carry a weapon, in accordance with the Android Act.
2038: Some androids failing?
A growing number of androids are showing worrying signs of dysfunction. Some machines have disappeared, some have self-destructed, and others have refused to obey their owners. There are even some cases where androids have shown violence and unpredictable behavior. CyberLife offers no comment at this time.
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I think I have a few apology to do the Deus Ex timeline
 
Teen Spirit said:
A: No. You're making it more accessible.
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Uh, 'making/having democratic prices' (or 'democraticising' as they reworded it) is the slang for making/keeping/etc. prices accessible to the broader public. So yes, they're making it more accessible, no contradiction there, it's exactly what was said.
 
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To me personally this more resembles human cloning than anything robotic, at least in terms of repercussions as these androids are, or can basically be human. Like barring the whole born to be slaves business such technology can basically be used to artificially boost the population with ready made adults.
 
Teen Spirit said:
The more I look at this the dumber it gets. "Mimics the functioning of blood but several thousand times faster" is outright nonsensical unless they mean all androids turn into a pressure hose the moment they get cut.
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That sounds like NCIS levels of writing, right up their with pop culture versions of "hacking".

inb4 we get an NCIS hacking scene in the game.

I'm also not really sure how this "blue blood" even correlates with how the robot is able to be a convincing human. Sounds like the writing team just thought of a cool idea and just ran with it without actually thinking about it... :/
 
Reveen said:
If the writers don't see a link between the concepts of androids putting certain fields out of work and a rising unemployment rate and treats them as seperate things then this story is going to have problems.
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Uh, given that this idea was raised in the video, I'm pretty sure they see the link. That Kamski doesn't care is reflective of the character, not of the general writing. Like this:

Teen Spirit said:
To give some amount of credit the actual city looks a bit more futuristic than I initially though. Still raises a question of why the suburbs still look like the worst of Detroit today and one of the guys living there can afford one of them.
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could it possibly be that due to android technology putting more than a quarter of the working population out of a job that a large part of the city has no money so that parts of it are going to look destitute??????

You all want to talk about how badly written this is, but at the moment you're getting rings walked around you all by David Cage. I understand not wanting to be charitable to the guy given previous entries in his body of work, but please don't populate this thread with obviously dumb takes.
 
Kokurokoki said:
I'm also not really sure how this "blue blood" even correlates with how the robot is able to be a convincing human. Sounds like the writing team just thought of a cool idea and just ran with it without actually thinking about it... :/
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if it lets energy and information be moved much faster, it'd mean more energy available for more lifelike movements and more processing power to act convincingly human.
 
Ford Prefect said:
could it possibly be that due to android technology putting more than a quarter of the working population out of a job that a large part of the city has no money so that parts of it are going to look destitute??????

You all want to talk about how badly written this is, but at the moment you're getting rings walked around you all by David Cage. I understand not wanting to be charitable to the guy given previous entries in his body of work, but please don't populate this thread with obviously dumb takes.
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Fine, suburbs being shit makes sense to a degree. But 25% unemployment would cause more problems then we're seeing. If unemployment is that bad then we should being seeing more effects than just parts of Detroit looking the same. Heck we should have massive anti-android stigma considering they're putting nurses and teachers out of work. And we have zero implication of that.
 
Teen Spirit said:
But 25% unemployment would cause more problems then we're seeing.
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In a trailer, you mean.

Earlier in the thread I lambasted Cage for trotting out 'you have to see it in context' after presenting part of the domestic violence subplot out of context. The impressions given by snapshots are important, but they remain snapshots. You should be cautious about thinking that you have a complete picture.

The story has a particular aim. You play a group of robots involved, in various ways, in a robot rebellion. That's the story's focus and so it's what features in the trailers. However, it is also clear that there are other elements to the surrounding story, like the effect of automation on human society. But that isn't the key part of the characters' story, so it doesn't feature.

You don't know how it will feature. The humans in the launch trailer express various opinions of robots, so it seems likely that will feature.

Maybe it'll be handled badly! But you're being pretty presumptuous on that front. You say, for example, that things should be 'worse' but don't account for how the unemployment is caused by these generalist robots, so society in general is probably going to do fine. Disparity seems like an acceptable aesthetic.

It's like the complaints about the technological capabilities of the androids and their price. That shit doesn't matter. Science fiction can be whatever it needs to be in order to achieve its storytelling objectives. Blade Runner needed Batty and friends to be from another planet, so there are off world colonies in the very near future. Detroit needs a proliferation of decent robots, so it does.

Not accepting the premise is fine, and normal reason to not consume a piece of media, but this is not exactly an outrageous premise in itself.
 
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