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Ann Droid the TV show - somewhere to chat about it

Phased
HI all
What really stood out to me about the recent BBC TV comedy series Ann Droid is how much the robot character feels like an accidental metaphor for the autistic experience. Watching a character try to navigate the world by logically analyzing social rules, copying behaviors to fit in, and managing literal interpretations of language feels very familiar. And I admit I found that a little unsettling.
Underneath all, I experienced it as it's a really sharp social commentary about how growing old has become in our society.  Massive gaps in social support and the way techno fixes are being looked to to patch over an overstretched social care.  Also how family and informal social care networks are overstretched too for supporting their loved ones.
I am maybe overdoing my analysis, but I'd suggest that it manages to be a profound, dark critique of modern social isolation whilst still managing to maintain its warmth as a light comedy.
And in my opinion less "cringemaking" than some of Dianne Morgan's other work...
Oh and it made me laugh too!
thoughts and discussion good people?
Parents

  • A lot of TV portrayals of robots, androids and artificial humans etc. often feel very autistic coded, much like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Rei Ayanami from Evangelion

  • in reply to Jamesmac

    Yep I agree  

    Data i knew of but Ray Ayanami was new to me - I've took a quick look and I get what you mean about the extension of "artificial human" to wider possibilities. Thanks for introducing that to me.  :-)

    By way of exchange there is a character in a series of sci-fi books written by Sir Terry Pratchett and Steve Brooks - "The Long Earth" i'd like to share.

    Lobsang is an artificially intelligent supercomputer who is legally recognised as a human being because he is the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repair man.  :-)  This gets around AI not being recognised as being human because of the legal hurdles!

    Lobsang is the main helper of the main human character (Joshua Valienté) in the books - hmmm... seems familiar!

    Both Lobsag and Joshua are autism coded in my opinion too.

    Hehe, Lobsang for a laugh sometimes disguises his avatar as a soft drink vending machine :-) 

    Here's my version: "anyone fancy a drink?"

Reply
  • in reply to Jamesmac

    Yep I agree  

    Data i knew of but Ray Ayanami was new to me - I've took a quick look and I get what you mean about the extension of "artificial human" to wider possibilities. Thanks for introducing that to me.  :-)

    By way of exchange there is a character in a series of sci-fi books written by Sir Terry Pratchett and Steve Brooks - "The Long Earth" i'd like to share.

    Lobsang is an artificially intelligent supercomputer who is legally recognised as a human being because he is the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repair man.  :-)  This gets around AI not being recognised as being human because of the legal hurdles!

    Lobsang is the main helper of the main human character (Joshua Valienté) in the books - hmmm... seems familiar!

    Both Lobsag and Joshua are autism coded in my opinion too.

    Hehe, Lobsang for a laugh sometimes disguises his avatar as a soft drink vending machine :-) 

    Here's my version: "anyone fancy a drink?"

Children
  • in reply to Jamesmac

    I started with the first "discworld" novel over 40 odd years ago, I came back to the series a few later "dipping in and out" of the sequence until I was hooked (they get better and perhaps more sophisticated as the author gets his world up and running in my opinion) and eagerly awaited the next until sadly no more could come.  With side journeys into Sir Terry's wider catalogue that were fun too.

    They are funny yes.  With plenty of "easter eggs" to discover  - funny with great twists on plenty of existing tropes and stories from an author with an enormous amount of humanity.

    Hehe can you tell I'm a fan!

  • in reply to Phased

    I've heard things about Terry Pratchett books. They sound pretty funny, I've been thinking about reading one of them as some point!