Surely the NHS nurse is about 40 - played by Rebecca Front from In the Thick of It and various other comedies and dramas. I guess that’s the point,older synth’s suggest experience:
She’s 51, but the makeup takes away some of the aging.
She looks a lot older than 40 on the show, at least to me.
What are you, racist? 
And Hurt’s boy, who appears to be about 14. I would suggest that young-adult is considered the optimal age of appearance and expected social interaction. Besides which, no one is going to tune in to see Ms. Ratched’s responses to the 18+ adult options. Y’know.
He looks like he’s in his twenties.
How much more effort would be required to make robots that appear that human (down to skin, hair, eyes and sex organs), rather than ones that are approximately humanoid? (As someone pointed out upthread, this is obviously because it’s easier to cast the show this way, but still.) If the robots were just humanoids, the escapees would stick out like sore thumbs, and there would probably be less emotional attachment, as we’re seeing with William Hurt’s character and the little girl Sophie.
And the show has mentioned that the robots are putting people out of work, but what are all of those people doing instead?
Think so? I’d say under 18.
Possibly more than the effort is worth, since there doesn’t appear to be any drive to make synths actually pass as human, just be “good enough” in that respect. (Plot-driven more than sensibility-driven, but there you have it.)
Listening to the Rush Limbaugh show.
It’s a trope that goes back to Capek, if not Shelley. Of course robots are going to “put people out of work”… get the hammers and pitchforks! Let’s see if they ever try to get to a more sophisticated interpretation, probably from some geeky econ-symp type who gets killed in the next scene.
Writing poetry, I guess.
/sullen teenage girl
If they looked a bit human, but not as much as now, they’d have the uncanny valley effect and be so creepy that sales would be much lower.
Having them look more like c3p0 or something would be better, if they existed in the real world as opposed to the show, that is, but then I guess they wouldn’t be as multi purpose.
Most of the synths do look about twenty five, but Odie is about twenty and there was a school caretaker who was about forty so the “care” worker is not the only exception.
Hurt’s guy looks like early 20s to me, too. Definitely not a teenager.
Okay. Maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention.
Note that the actor playing, Odi, William Hurt’s robot, is 28 years old.
I’m going to assume there’s actually a law against producing synths that look like children. At least I hope there is. :eek:
Well, hmmm. I suppose I would prefer that pedophiles get a synth than molest a human child.
Which reminds me, I don’t think I’d like the hooker synths at all. They don’t have body heat?! Can’t say that I’m into necrophilia.
That’s why the scene before the ending of AI, with the rows of Davids and Sarahs, gave me the creeps. Well, one of the reasons.
(AI ended with David under the water, obviously).
Sexbots are the second thing that occur to every writer, futurist, etc. who thinks for five minutes about “almost human androids.”
And then they wonder why they were even thinking about “household servant” first.
They’ve managed to make the robots look almost human in every other aspect, some of them quite difficult technically. Surely it would be fairly simple to add some mild heating elements to make the body temperature match a human.
Regarding the end of the fourth episode
I like that the actress playing the secretary at the cops office had the same vaguely stiff mannerisms of the synths. It was just the right amount of subtle that I wasn’t sure if it was on purpose until the reveal
Caught EP3 last night - I’m officially hooked. I’m really enjoying the story line and William Hurt’s performance has been quite good. Can’t wait to find out what Odi knows…
I didn’t see that coming, nor …
…Leo being a synth as well :eek:.
And Anita in adult mode was just creepy; was it just me to did her personality & expressions not change at all?
I wonder how male synths act when their “adult mode” is activated?
Loved the twist at the end of last nights episode. Good show so far - really enjoying it.