Author: Mark Renney

It is easy now to spot the androids, even for those with an untrained eye. I remember some fifty years ago my father would point them out on the street, or in a supermarket or restaurant. Everywhere and anywhere. The key, he said, is not to look for the flaws because there aren’t any. You have to observe the little ways in which they are superior, the ways they are able to beat us.

The first prototypes had been introduced a decade or so earlier, and at this point in time the androids constituted fifty per cent of the population. We have already reached the shortfall in such a short period of time, it’s astonishing, my father exclaimed excitedly, and his enthusiasm was infectious. But the funding had already been cut and manufacture crudely halted. They are better than us, I remember my father once saying, but no, he quickly corrected himself, of course they aren’t better. After all, the androids wouldn’t exist if not for us, but they are faster, both physically and mentally. My father crouched down and looked at me with a serious expression on his face. You shouldn’t feel intimidated by this, son, he continued, always remember we need them and the relationship is mutually beneficial. If we are to survive, it will be because of them and if we don’t, well at least they will be our legacy.

The androids are not allowed to work for any of the government funded corporations but other than this they have the same rights and freedoms as us. At least this is the official line. Everybody knows of course that it is just spin.

If we get sick we can visit a doctor, we have hospitals, surgeons, medicines, organ donors. We aren’t immortal and Nature will have her way but a system exists that is designed to ensure we survive and lead healthy and fulfilling lives.

The androids are breaking down and we are unable to maintain them. When the funding was yanked away the focus fell onto other specialisms and areas of expertise. Over the course of those fifty short years we have squandered all of that knowledge and lost not only the ability to manufacture more androids but also to care for those who already exist.

Cosmetically the androids are managing to cling on but beneath their far too perfect skin they are breaking down. The wiring and circuits and components are corroding. It is no longer necessary to look for the little ways in which they are superior. The androids are slowly dying, in front of our very eyes.