Are Sentient Robots considered aliens for the sake of Xenophobe ethos?

[Amightypie]

non sentient robots are not xenos however their sentient counterparts are xenos

 

[TastyMints]

Maybe it's based on your materialist/spiritualist leanings?

This makes sense to me. A xenophobic culture may not necessarily reject sapient machines. Sapient machines that they built themselves may be tolerated on a cultural level and sapient machines that have rebelled against their creators may even be viewed as a potential ally. I could see a somewhat negative disposition toward machines created by alien species but on a gradient scale the Materialist/Spiritualist dichotomy could very reasonably have a much greater influence on these types of relationships. Materialists may be more willing to parlay with sapient machines whereas spiritualists might refuse to recognize any value of synthetic life in the first place.

 

[Dunstall]

I'm so building robots in my first playthrough. And if Skynet happens during it, even better!

 

[Velorian]

I think robots and cybernetic enhancement should have its own dlc at some point. I would so love to have the option to take my base species and "upgrade" the crap out of them. like till all that is left are creepy brains in jars. with giant robot bodies. thats the empire im after! oh and people better be afraid of us! very afraid! *shakes metal clamp hand in general direction.*

If they are willing to go that far it would be more elegant to upload their minds into a cybernetic copy. Then they'd essentially be an AI species, except that they started out as an organic species and has their old personalities.

 

[moglus]

I think a Xenophobe should be fearful of a robot he made himself, if it's free to do whatever it wants. If it's "under supervision" (enslaved) then there should be no problem.

I don't really understand that argument, by that logic they should also all hate their offspring, and each other, Like where does it end?

Additionally, in my experience one of the best way to find an answer to these kinds of things in PDS games, is to look at in-game terminology.

As far as we know there are 3 options for the "leadership" policy
-Main species only
-Xeno-leadership
-Unnamed policy allowing robots to be leaders

From that it's pretty clear that the game does make a distinction between "aliens" and "robots", so my immediate guess would be, no, xenophobia does not apply to robots.

 

[DavetheGreat]

What I'm curious to see is if a collectivist robot is more likely to remain obedient (afterall, all the organics are in the same boat) and if individualists can give robots rights (as they become individuals) before they have a chance to rebel.

Course, they might have no impact on robots at all, who knows.

 

[Sapidianus]

What I'm curious to see is if a collectivist robot is more likely to remain obedient (afterall, all the organics are in the same boat) and if individualists can give robots rights (as they become individuals) before they have a chance to rebel.

Course, they might have no impact on robots at all, who knows.

Devs said, that AI rights are influenced by materialist ethos, not individualist.

 

[DavetheGreat]

Makes sense, thanks.

 

[Velorian]

I don't really understand that argument, by that logic they should also all hate their offspring, and each other, Like where does it end?

Additionally, in my experience one of the best way to find an answer to these kinds of things in PDS games, is to look at in-game terminology.

As far as we know there are 3 options for the "leadership" policy
-Main species only
-Xeno-leadership
-Unnamed policy allowing robots to be leaders

From that it's pretty clear that the game does make a distinction between "aliens" and "robots", so my immediate guess would be, no, xenophobia does not apply to robots.

Well I was thinking in terms of what the Ethos represents and how it should be mechanically represented as opposed to how it is currently mechanically represented.

A person who fears an alien should also fear a sentient machine free to do whatever it wants. Unless he could be really sure that it was obedient to it's programming to prioritize the creator race's needs. Their race may have designed them, but if they were of a trustworthy design then why would it insist on being "free" though?

For a xenophobe to realistically accept them they either need to be the same as them (they aren't) or decidedly harmless (slaves or non-sentient).

I think materialists should be positive towards robots, but no more than they'd be negative if also Xenophobe, so those would cancel each other out, therefore more accepted than a standard alien. Spiritualists might be opposed on religious ground and Xenophiles might be positive because they idealize tolerating those different than themselves, which surely includes AIs.

I don't understand your comparison to their offspring or each other? Do you truly think creating an artificially made android/AI personality is the same as having a child of your own genes?

Where it ends, for a Xenophobe, is exactly where it stops being exactly like them. So at minimum if you can't breed with them they are Alien, and probably also lesser degrees of racism towards slightly different members of their own race, judging by humanity's behaviour.

True xenophobia is practically a mental disease, they might or might not be right, but whether evidence justifies it or not they will oppose anything that's different. How is a freaking Android not different?

The only way I could see them accepting them is if some of the androids were former members of their own species transferred into Cybernetic bodies.