Ground-breaking technology of the 'Alien' universe, encompassing medpods and X-ray flashlights
In the upcoming TV series, Alien: Earth, set to premiere in 2025, AI and machine learning are central to medical and technological efforts to defeat aging and death. This new instalment in the Alien universe continues the exploration of the relationship between humans and the robots they create in their image.
The series portrays a future where AI and machine learning are blurring lines between human consciousness and machine. AI manifests in three key forms relevant to healthcare and human life extension: synthetics, cyborgs, and hybrids.
Synthetics, or synths, are fully robotic beings with downloaded or simulated human minds, representing a form of artificial life. Cyborgs are humans enhanced with robotic parts, blending biological and machine elements. The most significant for healthcare in the series are hybrids—synthetic bodies with downloaded minds of terminally ill children, effectively granting a form of immortality or mind uploading to overcome death from illness.
This portrayal raises ethical and existential questions about identity, immortality, and corporate control over life. The series follows characters like Wendy, a hybrid with the mind of a terminally ill child, as they grapple with these complex issues.
Creator Noah Hawley links these ideas to historical technological rivalries and contemporary concerns about AI, suggesting that AI-driven healthcare will be dominated by powerful corporations racing to achieve immortality, combining AI, robotics, and biotechnology.
The Alien series also delves into the theme of capitalism as a bloodthirsty monster, with advanced technology such as luxury space liners and floating space cities being used for corporate gain. The series features tenacious female heroines and depicts AI with advanced abilities, such as automatically piloting city-sized ships and alerting crew to threats.
In addition to AI, the series also features other advanced technology, such as cryopods, which allow humans to travel long distances in stasis and slow down the aging process. The 2024 film, Alien: Romulus, even features an X-ray torch used to reveal a chestburster emerging from a character's ribcage.
Alien: Earth premieres Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. ET on Hulu and FX with two episodes, with new episodes dropping weekly on Tuesdays. This new series promises to continue the franchise’s longstanding exploration of AI ethics and human vulnerability in a post-biological age.
- Google's AI and machine learning technology will likely play a significant role in promoting digital streaming of the new Alien: Earth series set to premiere on Hulu and FX.
- In the future portrayed in Alien: Earth, tech giants, like those who specialize in data-and-cloud-computing, will race to control AI-driven healthcare, mimicking historical technological rivalries.
- The connection between Alien: Earth's characters and their AI counterparts, be it synthetics, cyborgs, or hybrids, alters the understanding of human identity, blending digital and human consciousness.
- YouTubers who operate channels focused on technology and AI ethics should review Alien: Earth, as the series creatively explores the ethical and existential dilemmas surrounding artificial intelligence and immortality.
- The Alien: Earth series not only showcases advanced tech such as AI, crystalpods for interstellar travel, and X-ray torches but also relates it to contemporary concerns about corporate control over life and the dehumanization of technology in a post-biological era.
- Gadget enthusiasts will appreciate the AI-driven gadgets featured in Alien: Earth, from city-sized AI-piloted ships to cryopods that slow down aging, making it a must-watch series in tech-focused YouTube streaming platforms.
