Humans 2.4: Android Orgasms

Humans 2.4 offered two new threads to the intricately woven story this year.

Actually, the first was not a thread, but a perspective on the entire fabric of the season.  This year, far more than last year, we're getting a wide and vibrantly populated diversity in the kinds of synths we're seeing, one which goes well beyond the sentient self-aware and slave-to-programming distinction we saw in the first season.  Among those who are self aware, we have not only those who were secretly programmed to be that way, but synths who were turned from automata into self-aware either by Niska's globally transmitted virus (Hester) or by Mattie's direct application (Odi).  And we have Athena's plan, which I discussed last week, to transfer an already-existing human mind into a synth.  When we add these new actualities and possibilities to the range of sentient synth personalities we already saw last season, we get a rich tapestry of synthetic personality indeed - one which moves closer, of course, to the diversity of human life.

The other thread is an insight into how at least one synth experiences a very fundamental human activity - orgasm.  Ed wants to know how Mia enjoyed their first sexual encounter, which was great for him.   The most that she can say, other than that she liked it, is that it gave her a sense of "proximity".  This raises a bunch of important questions.  Did she in fact have an organism, but doesn't know how to describe it, or doesn't even have a word for it?  If not, is that because this was her first experience, which means that, with time and practice, she'll indeed come, in the good old-fashioned human way?  Or is it the case that she and all the sentient synths just don't have the hormonal formula needed have an organism?

Last week, Athena told her synth mind-in-a-desktop that she needed a body because she was "young". That was a good answer, but doesn't yet tell us what sentient androids are capable of doing. If I remember correctly, Niska in the first episode of this season didn't exactly go wild with pleasure when she was in bed with Astrid.   If time travel could be worked into this story, it would be fun to see Masters and Johnson called in for an observation.

See also Humans 2.1: Westworld meets Nashville ... Humans 2.2: The Consciousness Code ... Humans 2.3: Motives and Uploads


And see also Humans: In Ascending Order ... Humans 1.7: "I Think You're Dead, George"

Hey - if you're in the New York area, I'll be talking about Humans at HELIOsphere this Saturday and Sunday!