We will pose the most important question: What if R2-D2, Mr. Data, Battle Angel Alita, and HAL 9000 show up at FanX? Can there be only one? Or would they just spend three days cosplaying and take a thousand photos with random strangers? Inquiring nerd minds need to know! We will talk about Blade Runner’s replicants (Rachael, Roy, Deckard?!, and Officer K); Daleks from Dr. Who; Droids (R2, C3P0, BB-8, L3-37, K2-SO); the androids in the Alien movies (Ash, Bishop, David and Walter), Westworld (spoiler alert!); Asimov’s Three Laws; Ava in Ex Machina; Bicentennial Man (Robin Williams as Andrew); Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell; Terminators, and many more. What defines sentience and personhood? Is Artificial Intelligence going to be the end of humanity? Do humans have the right to create life and have it be subservient to them? Mary Shelley posed that question in Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, and writers continue to ponder it two hundred years later. Most importantly: Do androids dream of unicorns, or electric sheep? Find out and come dressed as either: a human, your favorite android, a cyborg, or a robot. *Mechs welcome, please no unattended kaiju.
150 G