LMD

[beccaelizabeth]

Life Model Decoys are androids that look exactly like someone and that can be remote piloted, if I've understood wikis correctly. Like Avatar but without being blue. If they're not, pretend there's that technology, it's bunny central.

So there's some pretty obvious reasons to use them, and not just for special occasions or as duplicates to get shot at. Like wheelchairs, obviously, or burns maybe, or just wanting a completely different face than the one you were born with, different body, for all the many varied reasons. And they're an awesome tool for spies. Wear whoever you like.

Easy to make them too powerful for stories actually. Magic plot fix.


Of course if they're just regular androids you get the who owns that life issues all over the place, the free will issues if they develop divergent interests, those are fun too.


There's a bunch of Coulson is an android stories already.

Maybe he's a remote control android. With interesting reasons for doing things that way.



If Oracle could remote pilot a Batgirl body, would she?




Today's bunny, kind of tiny. And it's the first bunny of the day at 2121. All this kitchen stuff, no good for writings.

Comments

[kickair8p]

Not sure if this is bunny food or bunny poison, but: Surrogates (yeah, the Bruce Willis film). Although I consider most of the depicted effects of living through a surrogate to be ridiculously unlikely, you might find something useful.

(Personally, although I'd say Coulson's alive, I go with the stabbed-died-revived-recovering scenarios, and haven't read a LMD fic that I liked yet.)

~

[beccaelizabeth]

That sounds like they had an interesting idea and then just used it to blow stuff up.

Also, I don't see any problem in using surrogates like that, so it's weird the happy ending being them all going away. I mean, that would make people instantly less able all over. Why the happy?

[kickair8p]

Apparently, having established (to the script-writer's satisfaction) that surrogates are bad-bad-bad even though they have some benefits, it's a good thing that they're gone. If the ability of some people to function is now/again severely compromised, that's a small price to pay to restore a "normal" life for everyone else. D8< Follow the link to the comic series the movie was adapted from and you'll find that the original writer was extrapolating from people who spend most of their time online, to the detriment of their "real-world" lives and relationships. Looks like the analogy was ham-handed even in the original.

Dragging this back to LMDs in the various Marvel-verses (and keeping in mind that I haven't read any of the comics they're in, just browsed through what's online) and it looks like they can be remotely "ridden" like a surrogate/avatar with a full-sensory hook-up, but they also have an AI based on the original's personality that can run independently when the original's unavailable (which seems to be what Tony was pretending to do when he was impersonating his own LMD in the Avengers movie). You've probably spotted that one of Nick Fury's LMDs has tried to take over Fury's life for himself, and there've been other instances that show the LMDs' AIs either are or can become sentient/sapient people.

Not surprising considering JARVIS, but you're right -- it looks like the ethical and societal-impact implications of these technologies have been barely touched on in the comics, never mind the movies. But this does mean that if Phil Coulson's been operating through a LMD, both he and Fury could've forgotten that while it was "dying", respecting the feel of the scene. As for possible reasons why Coulson's using an LMD, have you seen the movie Source Code?

~

[kickair8p]

Re my previous comment: that movie might need a squick warning, especially in this context. Having read McCaffrey's Brainship stories young, I might be desensitized to Brain-in-a-Vat > assistive tech issues.

~

[baronjanus]

If it's an android with remote control, how is it good for people who want a different face/body for themselves? Can you wear it like an exoskeleton? Sounds unpleasant.

[beccaelizabeth]

No, the person is in one place and the android is in the other and the person can see and feel what the android sees. The wiki says "The owner can see through, speak through, and control everything the LMD does." So the person the world sees is the android but the owner still experiences it from a secure location.

Possibly.

[baronjanus]

Specifically for cases of dysphoria, it sounds more depressing than helpful :) but that's a nitpick.

[beccaelizabeth]

I was thinking it'd be like plugging in to the Matrix every morning, like, wear your avatar to work.

If people could do that they wouldn't stick with only boring human shapes though.

[baronjanus]

It could be great fun for people who like change and shapeshifting. It won't help the people who don't like what they have, and it would freak out most people who have a hard time getting used to the kind of shifting current day real life has to offer.

[beccaelizabeth]

*nods*

some people need to be freaked out

[baronjanus]

AMEN to that sistah.

[kickair8p]

Too small to be an info-dump, more like an info-droplet:

http://kickair8p.tumblr.com/post/32741327987/fuckyeahblackwidow-logan-soldier-knew-yer

"Logan: Soldier… Knew yer coffin smelled like an LMD…
Bucky: Thanks for coming, Logan.
Logan: I ain’t here for you, kid… I’m here for Natalia."

From Winter Soldier #10, by Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice.

This means Life Model Decoys are detectable by scent? (Via enhanced senses, but still.) They’re designed to fool telepaths, but not sniffer-dogs?

~