ABSTRACT
To initially posit the idea of artificial people, this chapter briefly extrapolates from one of the most widely cited science fiction film franchises. In the Alien series—Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979), Aliens (Cameron, 1986), Alien 3 (Fincher, 1992), and Alien: Resurrection (Jeunet, 1997)—while the central concern is with the predominantly violent relationship between humans and acid-for-blood aliens, the four films 1 also create a meaningful narrative about non-human artificial entities. In the first Alien film, the science officer Ash turns out not to be a biological human being, but rather a manufactured entity who, being an icon of Thatcherite economic rationalism, on ‘company orders’ attempts to kill the crew in order to save the alien since it has higher commodity value than they do. Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of that original crew, learns quickly to distrust non-human entities, leading to a confrontation in the sequel when she realises, once again, there are more than ‘just’ humans on board the ship in which she is travelling:
