HEARTS OF STEEL: Lifelike robots

New drama Humans (9pm, Ch4) is set in a world where uncannily lifelike robots can be bought to help out round the home – but some of these ‘gadgets’ are more human than others. Here are some other on-screen synthetic life forms that have aspired to become more human… In Ex Machina (2015), a genius scientist asks a computer whiz to test his invention, an artificially intelligent robot called Ava, to find out whether she could pass as human. There is every chance that she will not only pass the socalled Turing test, but also prove herself superior to humans. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) follows David, a Pinocchio-like robot boy, who dreams of being truly human one day. Believing his goal possible, David embarks on a quest that takes him far into the future. In Bicentennial Man (1999), Andrew (Robin Williams, below) is a domestic robot who joins a family and quickly demonstrates sentience, something that his ‘owner’ family nurture in him, eventually setting him free. Over two centuries, Andrew strives to lead a full human life – even falling in love – and to be accepted as human by the authorities. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982) features robots, or ‘replicants’, that are designed to mimic humans in every way – they are so lifelike, in fact, that the only way to tell them apart from humans is via a complex test. Harrison Ford’s cop – aka a Blade Runner – pursues a group of rogue replicants, led by Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty (right), that have developed a strong desire for survival and to live beyond their built-in life span of four years.