I have a friend who introduced me to an idea of hers in which there is a society of androids with human emotions, with the exception of one missing one. We've gone on to call this idea "Missing" and I've been playing around with it a lot and it's been very fun to worldbuild. I have found myself encountering some plot holes, though, as I make my way deeper into how the world works. For example, some things that have been bothering me in particular are aging/dying/lifespans. Could I get some advice as to what I can do to make this world function properly? Anything helps.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have about this universe. Yes, I have a page for it, but I plan on developing it some more before making it public.
I'm not really about androids and stuff, but if I were in this situation I'd have the androids just wear out. I'm not sure how these androids work, but perhaps their wires start to fray, or their parts start to rust. Eventually they just shut down. As for aging, I'm not sure. I honestly don't really have a good suggestion for this one :P
Maybe for aging you could say every few years they get an upgraded body, up until the point they reach adulthood. Then they don't get any more upgrades? Idk just a suggestion
Going off the upgrades, what if, for example, once an android has finished first grade, they get an upgrade. The same thing happens for second grade, and third grade, and so on. Eventually, when the grades get harder, it's making the androids work to pass the grade and get their upgrade. Maybe that would help, so it's an established pattern? and then once they're fully upgraded, they've earned each upgrade and are adults.
I hadn't thought of it that way. Upgrades are an idea, I'll keep that in mind! I was thinking of giving the androids set ages that go unchanged as well as lifespans. They begin to break down after a certain number of years (unspecified), eventually dying and following through with normal human protocol. But I also have another idea that I feel would be much more fun to write, in which once androids begin the slow process of breaking down (most likely over the course of up to several years) they are then retracted from their normal living situation and essentially scrapped before they can even die. So the rough idea is that an android is released as a model with certain functions dependent on the designated 'age' of their model. Said android then goes on to live a normal life in society with free will up until the point they begin breaking down, losing proper function and then eventually being retrieved by the government–those who had been close to him not knowing that he'd essentially been killed. Creation is a bit more complicated for me, though, since I have to figure out how an android with set skills, knowledge, and backstory can suddenly be implemented into the society without raising suspicion, haha.
