Editing Android (robot) (section)

==Use in fiction==
{{See also|List of fictional robots and androids}}
<!-- Please add descriptions of individual androids to that list, not here, so as to avoid duplication. Thanks! -->

Androids are a staple of science fiction. [[Isaac Asimov]] pioneered the fictionalization of the science of [[robotics]] and [[artificial intelligence]], notably in his 1950s series ''[[I, Robot]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Jonathan Barra|first=Roger Caille|title=The Android Generation|url=http://midnighttracks.net/2012/2012_rdr_8.html|publisher=West Coast Midnight Run/Citadel Consulting Group LLC|access-date=9 February 2013|display-authors=etal}}</ref> One thing common to most fictional androids is that the real-life technological challenges associated with creating thoroughly human-like robots — such as the creation of [[artificial general intelligence|strong artificial intelligence]]—are assumed to have been solved.<ref name="Van Riper 11">Van Riper, op.cit., p. 11.</ref> Fictional androids are often depicted as mentally and physically equal or superior to humans—moving, thinking and speaking as fluidly as them.<ref name="Stableford2006"/><ref name="Van Riper 11"/>

The tension between the nonhuman substance and the human appearance—or even human ambitions—of androids is the dramatic impetus behind most of their fictional depictions.<ref name="Wilson2006"/><ref name="Van Riper 11"/> Some android heroes seek, like [[Pinocchio]], to become human, as in the film ''[[Bicentennial Man (film)|Bicentennial Man]]'',<ref name="Van Riper 11" /> or [[Data (Star Trek)|Data]] in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''. Others, as in the film ''[[Westworld (film)|Westworld]]'', rebel against abuse by careless humans.<ref name="Van Riper 11"/> Android hunter [[Rick Deckard|Deckard]] in ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]'' and its film adaptation ''[[Blade Runner]]'' discovers that his targets appear to be, in some ways, more "human" than he is.<ref name="Van Riper 11"/> The sequel ''[[Blade Runner 2049]]'' involves android hunter K, himself an android, discovering the same thing. Android stories, therefore, are not essentially stories "about" androids; they are stories about the [[human condition]] and what it means to be human.<ref name="Van Riper 11"/> 

One aspect of writing about the meaning of humanity is to use discrimination against androids as a mechanism for exploring racism in society, as in ''Blade Runner''.<ref name="Dinello76">{{Cite book|last=Dinello|first=Daniel|title=Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BA_1sOD40K4C&pg=PA76|year=2005|page=76|isbn=9780292709867}}</ref> Perhaps the clearest example of this is [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner's]] 1968 novel ''[[Into the Slave Nebula]]'', where the blue-skinned android slaves are explicitly shown to be fully human.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediascie00damm|url-access=limited|last= D'Ammassa|first=Don|year=2005|publisher=Facts on File|page = [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediascie00damm/page/n64 58]|isbn = 978-0-8160-5924-9}}</ref> More recently, the androids [[Bishop (Aliens)|Bishop]] and Annalee Call in the films ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' and ''[[Alien Resurrection]]'' are used as vehicles for exploring how humans deal with the presence of an "[[Other (philosophy)|Other]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1353/cj.2005.0011|last=Nishime|first=LeiLani|title=The Mulatto Cyborg: Imagining a Multiracial Future|journal = Cinema Journal|volume=44|issue=2|pages=34–49|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|date=Winter 2005}}</ref> The 2018 video game ''[[Detroit: Become Human]]'' also explores how androids are treated as second class citizens in a near future society.

Female androids, or "[[gynoid]]s", are often seen in science fiction, and can be viewed as a continuation of the long tradition of men attempting to create the stereotypical "perfect woman".<ref name=melzer202>{{Cite book|title=Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought|url=https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz|url-access=limited|last=Melzer|first=Patricia|year=2006|publisher=[[University of Texas Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n214 202]|isbn= 978-0-292-71307-9}}</ref> Examples include the [[Greek mythology|Greek myth]] of ''[[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]]'' and [[Maschinenmensch|the female robot Maria]] in [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]''. Some gynoids, like Pris in ''Blade Runner'', are designed as sex-objects, with the intent of "pleasing men's violent sexual desires",<ref>Melzer, p. 204</ref> or as submissive, servile companions, such as in ''[[The Stepford Wives]]''. Fiction about gynoids has therefore been described as reinforcing "essentialist ideas of femininity",<ref>{{Cite book|title = SciFi in the mind's eye: reading science through science fiction|last=Grebowicz|first=Margret|author2=L. Timmel Duchamp |author3=Nicola Griffith |author4=Terry Bisson |year=2007|publisher=Open Court|page=xviii|isbn=978-0-8126-9630-1}}</ref> although others have suggested that the treatment of androids is a way of exploring racism and [[misogyny]] in society.<ref name = "Dinello77">Dinello, op. cit., p 77.</ref>

The 2015 Japanese film ''[[Sayonara (2015 film)|Sayonara]]'', starring [[Geminoid F]], was promoted as "the first movie to feature an android performing opposite a human actor".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://variety.com/2015/film/asia/sayonara-filmmakers-debate-future-of-robot-actors-1201626092/|title= Tokyo: 'Sayonara' Filmmakers Debate Future of Robot Actors|author= James Hadfield|date= 24 October 2015|access-date= 9 November 2015|work= [[variety.com]]}}</ref>

The 2023 Dutch film ''[[I%27m Not a Robot (film)|I'm Not a Robot]]'' won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2025.