Replicant (Earth-7149)

"Each of us represents a single trans-human mind. Each of us is an undrawn map – not a mere physical reconstruction of an object as it was in life – but full, human potential realized in sillicone and thinking at the speed of light!"

- - One of the synthetics of the Replicant Freedom Movement

Synthetics, also known as androids, synths, and artificial persons, as some synthetics prefer to be referred as, are biomechanical artificially intelligent humanoids, essentially robots that closely mimic humans physically and in behavior. They constitute a huge market that is widespread through human colonies.

Development
The first Replicants were developed and fielded by Borgia Industries in 2165. These models were huge and bipedal, resembling more a mechanical robot rather than a human, featuring a humanoid driver at its core.

Widespread use
However, the greater development of Replicants became a massive concern, with critics noting that this new technology would become too advanced and render human jobs and intelligence obsolete. The human makeup added to synthetics, with the first Nexus series introduced by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in 2225, was to make the androids less threatening to humans, which allowed them to converse, discourse and participate in the day-to-day activities of their masters. By the 2210s, synthetics became incredibly advanced, to a degree they became externally indistinguishable from a human. The model was followed by the improved Muhammed/Yukio model.

After several years of bad press duo to the early rampancy and disobedience of Nexus-6 models, the Nexus-8 were rushed into the market in the 2500s, but were much better received by the public duo to their loyalty to owners and handlers. These new androids were manufactured by other synthetics, being more durable, functional, and resilient, all which expanded the Replicant market to new directions. During this time, the use of androids for combat in non-military use was deemed illegal, and as per the Three Laws of Robotics, synthetics were subjected to a number of rules to prevent the harming of human beings or itself. However, with the exclusive development of Replicants capable of ignoring the First Law, but only when they operate at full capacity. In the face of diminishing processing capabilities, Replicants became seemingly incapable of bypassing the Law. The Replicant Registration Database was created in 2541 to identify these Replicants and ensure no violence continued to happen.

After the Blackout of 2540, governments proposed to place heavier restrictions on Replicant development duo to the disobedience of the androids; the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, however, went to secretly develop the Nexus-9 series, and demonstrated their obedience and abilities to the public, prompting the government to overturn any prohibition and allow the development of new Replicants.

Nexus-9s were created by other Replicants, and were not only able to seamlessly replicate human behavior and intelligence, but also adher to human concepts such as art, music, poetry, religion, among many others, which they grew to respect and sympathize with. Newer additions included a ten-year lifespan, surpassing those of the Nexus-8.

Appearance and inner workings
Even though the cosmetic appearance of a synthetic seems superfluous, studies showed that humans, in general, are psychologically unable to interrelate with inhuman androids. As a result, the physical appearance and simulated behavioral patterns are carefully designed by their manufactures to maintain human familiarity. Synthetics are passive, prone to pacifism and non-threatening.

Modern synthetics are highly complex, being faster, stronger and much better coordinated than the average human. Their skeleton is formed of carbon fiber with latchment points that constitute an artificial musculature; these muscles are actually vat-grown silicon colloids powered by either electrical stimuli or pumped micro-hydraulic depending on the model and manufacturer. Androids are supplied with 25 kW hydrogen fuel cells located within their chest, which can live for 400 days before another refueling is required, able to be accessed through a hidden socket underneath their rib cage. Although charging time is varied, a modern day synthetic's power cell takes 72 hours to fully recharge.

Much like in humans, the skeletal structure of a synthetic is unstable, being effectively suspended by their musculature. Joint motorization, limb locking and gyrostabilization are not present. The muscles work actively in order to keep the android's chassis standing upright, as feedback systems control the stability. Durable, their muscles can withstand large impacts, wear and tear over time, but the lack self repair mean the eventual loss of elasticity, strength, and potentially the formation of rampancy. Their "blood" is a white liquid latex, used as lubrication of their interior systems.

Intelligence and personality
Modern synthetics possess an integrated Carbon 60 Riemann cycling-thought matrix, which has an incredible processing speed of 1015 floating point operations per second. Memory capacity features a fast cache buffer of 1 terabyte and 1.2 petabyte of non-volatile memory. The Rienmann system is built around a powerful heuristic log driver, which is designed to perform decision-making actions depending on the sensory data that is imported to their interfaces. The intuitive functions come from an array of stored contextual and semantic program that are linked to self-mapping loops. Despite the Replicant's very efficient ability to comprehend and understand abstract concepts, such as philosophy, religion, and symbolism, it is limited when compared to the minds of a human.

Replicants designed for social interactions, such as those used by civilians and the USCMC can eat and drink, although no nutrient is gained the consumption. Food is broken down in their artificial stomach cavities, and the following liquid is expelled through retractable catheters. Autons have their personality randomized with unique quirks following their manufacture at the production line, a result of both randomized process and the desire of the manufacturer, which makes all of them, even those within the same model and line, having subtle different characteristics from their peers. Unlike standard synthetic models such as the combat androids of the sex slave, which have intelligence limited to their designated area, Replicants are able to display emotion and a range of different abilities, including self-awareness, reason, conceptualization and offering opinions.

Lifespan
Replicants have a limited lifespan, as the exposure to large sums of information for long periods of isolation drive a Replicant into rampancy, a condition caused by aberrant personality manifestations, leading to the Replicant destroying continuously larger vital connections, killing their system. Call compared rampancy and a synthetic's death to that of a star: "they spark, burn brightly, and then either die by the crush of gravity or quickly terminate in a chaotic eruption".

The current set of Nexus-9 Replicants have a lifespan of nine years before rampancy starts; this was not always the case, as Nexus-6 could only endure living for four years while Nexus-8 could live up to seven years. While numerous solutions to combat the lifespan of Replicants have been proposed, none have been succesfully implemented.

Duo to the dangers posed by rampant Replicants, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and others have a decree to end a Replicant's operational lifespan by euthanizing them in a process known as the "final dispensation". While the process is commonly carried out by human handlers or owners, Replicants, in the absence of humans, will commit suicide, or "self-terminate" in technical terms.

Xenomorph immunity
As synthetics are artificial lifeforms, they are immune to infection and impregnation by the xenomorphs. While they can be attacked and killed by the endoparasite, synthetics are incapable of being impregnated by the species, as they are not biological and do not have real organs and body functions as those of other species. In multiple stances, Facehuggers have attempted to attach themselves in a synthetic's face, such as with Bishop, Call, and 7149, and while they were able to, they simply pulled off after discovering an impregnation process was impossible.

Scientists of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation have proposed the use of "bait" synthetics as means to acquire xenomorph specimens where the species might inhabit by sending them to a nest of Ovomorphs, where they would return with a Facehugger.