Line #22 Main/MechanisticAlienCulture


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6	Aliens or future humans that function like robots, despite being organic. If they have a society, it is heavily mechanized, and characterized by its rigidity.
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8	The [[{{Zeerust}} Zeerusty]] cultural counterpart to the RetroRocket, the FlyingSaucer, and the TinCanRobot; usually seen in older media and {{Retraux}} works. This probably comes from a classic way of distinguishing aliens from humans in older science fiction: give the aliens machine-like characteristics and values, and suddenly what would otherwise be just a [[HumanAliens Human Alien]], a [[RubberForeheadAliens Rubber Forehead Alien]], or [[PeopleInRubberSuits some guy in a rubber suit]] seems much more exotic when compared to regular old humans.
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10	Aliens like this may have some kind of HiveMind, have a HiveCasteSystem, or be controlled by an Artificial Intelligence (these frequently overlap). However they are just as often portrayed as individuals, though perhaps unimaginative ones. They will often use mechanical sounding terms, combined with typical SpockSpeak or RoboSpeak and SesquipedalianLoquaciousness to describe biological characteristics and processes ("energy extraction" or similar for eating; "waste extraction" for urination/defecation, "databanks" for memory, etc...), or their equivalents. Very often they will speak in a CreepyMonotone. Sometimes the reason that such a culture exists is because the entire species experienced a civilization-wide case of CyberneticsEatYourSoul, often as a response to some kind of large scale catastrophe. In the case of organics though, they will skip the cybernetic stage and adopt a mechanistic society in response to catastrophe, with similar consequences as CyberneticsEatYourSoul.
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12	In the twentieth century, it was probably also [[ScaryDogmaticAliens a commentary on both fascism and communism]] as systems that placed little to no value on the individual, and which seemed likely to dominate the world at the time. Yet even back in the 19th century, Creator/JulesVerne portrayed such a future in a very negative light in ''Literature/ParisInTheTwentiethCentury'' as a response to the dehumanizing aspects of the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution.
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14	In-universe, the aliens might either think of themselves ''as'' living machines, place a high cultural value on the characteristics of machines that are not reflected by organic beings (efficiency, organization, emotionlessness, etc...), or maybe held in bondage by a machine like a supercomputer.
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17	!!Examples:
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19	[[foldercontrol]]
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21	[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
22	* ''Anime/{{Macross}}'': The Zentraedi are a ProudWarriorRace so extreme that they had no concept of things like art, love, humor, or anything else not directly relevant to combat. This is because they're an artificial species made by [[{{Precursors}} the Protoculture]] specifically to fight their wars. They end up pulling a HeelFaceTurn after being exposed to (and [[HumanityIsInfectious growing obsessed with]]) human culture, particularly human music, filling the void of culture in their own society.
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25	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
26	* The Mondoshawan from ''Film/TheFifthElement'': are they beings wearing powered suits of armor, or are they MechanicalLifeforms? It's pretty ambiguous. Then again, some of the dialogue during Leeloo's reconstruction scene implies that the Mondoshawan have DNA (it's also implied that Leeloo, the titular "Fifth Element" and LivingMacGuffin, had a form similar to a Mondoshawan prior to being reconstructed in human form, since the piece of her that they used to reconstruct her appeared to be a Mondoshawan hand).
27	** Leeloo's form appears to be rather fluid, since the first time she is seen she looks like a stylized humanoid statue — it could be just some sort of sarcophagus, of course, but it certainly couldn't contain the bulk of a Mondoshawan.
28	* Laughably bad [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S01E07RobotMonster MST3K fodder]] and Sci-Fi Cult classic film ''Film/RobotMonster'' features Ro-Man... Appearing as a man in a gorilla suit with a deep sea diver's helmet, the alien invader's exact morphology is elusive. It seems to be a cyborg, it comes from an advanced civilization, it is able to resist radiation, and speaks in a typical [[RoboSpeak robotic]] [[CreepyMonotone style monotone]] [[{{Zeerust}} popular at the time in B-movies]]. However they are not simply constructs or tools, as we learn in the scene where the earth stationed Ro-Man contacts the leader of the Ro-Men, who is a similar diving helmeted gorilla-bodied biped.
29	* The Martians in ''Film/SantaClausConquersTheMartians'': [[FoodPills Food Pill-eating]], joyless, humorless humanoid creatures with metallic-green skin and distinctly robot-like headgear incorporated into their costume design; the dullness of their heavily mechanized lives results in their children getting addicted to joyful, cheery Earthling holiday television programming.
30	* The Ilia Probe in ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' struggles to comprehend carbon-based life (the probe is a humanoid android created by a society of MechanicalLifeforms to interact with the ''Enterprise'' crew), so it uses extremely mechanistic language, like "Carbon Units," "Kirk Unit," "Decker Unit," etc., to describe humanoid(oid) society and individual "carbon units." The Ilia Probe created by the machine entity V'Ger, being an android, is not an example, but its perception of humanoid society is, as it is colored by the machine belief (as it is on the machines' homeworld) that "carbon units" exist to "serve the creator" (which, according to the machine logic, must be a living machine as well, like V'Ger, its creation; similar V'Ger and the Ilia Probe perceive the USS ''Enterprise'' as a MechanicalLifeform serviced by "Carbon Units"). [[FridgeBrilliance Interestingly, this implies that "Carbon Units" (carbon-based life) on the machines' homeworld are considered "artificial" by the]] [[MechanicalLifeforms living machines]], [[WildMassGuessing which raises some very interesting questions about their evolution and technology]].
31	* The aliens in the French comedy ''Film/LeGendarmeEtLesExtraTerrestres'' are made of metal [[spoiler:and they rust]].
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34	[[folder:Folklore]]
35	* People who claim to have encountered TheMenInBlack frequently report that the individuals they encountered behaved in an odd, machine-like fashion, displayed an odd fascination with mundane objects, and spoke in unusual speech cadences, or a CreepyMonotone.
36	** One theory is that they're just ordinary government agents who deliberately act weird so that witnesses who describe them will sound crazy.
37	* "LittleGreenMen" in 1950's pop culture often had highly regimented societies and had mechanistic speech, behavior and self-perceptions.
38	* Similarly, the modern descendents of the Little Green Men Mythos, the modern-day [[TheGreys Greys]], are often described as being like organic robots or drones, and/or part of a HiveCasteSystem, sometimes even with a HiveMind. In many iterations of the modern UFO Mythos, TheGreys are also described as cold, soulless, or unemotional.
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41	[[folder:Literature]]
42	* Creator/KurtVonnegut's Tralfamadorians, depending on the story or novel that features them, are either StarfishAliens or MechanicalLifeforms that replaced their organic ancestors (Vonnegut never makes it clear if there was a RobotWar or if this was a more benevolent [[TheSingularity Singularity-like event]]), their culture is perhaps even more [[BuffySpeak Starfish-y]] then their physical form (when Salo tries to explain their system of government in ''Literature/TheSirensOfTitan'', he sounds like [[TheStoner he's fraking stoned]]). So, they ''sometimes'' count as examples of this trope, depending on the story. Vonnegut's literary, AuthorAvatar, Kilgore Trout, [[ShowWithinAShow wrote several stories]] using aliens that had the stereotypical features of this trope, including a race of Car-People.
43	* The Vogons from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'' are not-so little Green Men whose overly bureaucratized society, like the Hierarchy in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', may be taken as a parody or a deconstruction of this trope, with the over-bureaucratization standing in for over-mechanization.
44	* The Meklar from the ''Literature/LineOfDelirium'' series were originally LizardFolk, but they have embraced machine-like thinking, viewing everything organic as inferior, and each of them begins replacing body parts with cybernetics soon after birth, becoming fully MechanicalLifeforms by the end of their natural life span. Not much is known about their society, as only two individuals are described in the novels, and they are more the exception than the rule. T'san works for the human Imperial Security Bureau, and many of his parts were developed by human engineers, making him a [[FantasticRacism pariah of sorts among his own kind]]. Kas's'is works for the [[TheSyndicate Family]] and is more loyal to the Mother than the Perfect One (the Meklar leader). They are able to communicate with one another with a line-of-sight laser, making it impossible to intercept them. A group of humans calling themselves Mechanists strive to imitate the Meklar, and try mechanize themselves as much as possible. This makes them unable to use [[ResurrectiveImmortality aTan]], but their cyborg bodies are highly-resistant to damage.
45	* The main aliens in Bruce Coville's ''Literature/SpaceBrat'' books are stereotypical green humanoids with antennae who hatch from eggs. Their children are raised by computers and public officials, and many other elements of their society are highly impersonal.
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48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* Many episodes of the classic sci-fi anthology DuelingShows ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' feature aliens with ambiguously robotic characteristics. The ''Twilight Zone'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E19MrDingleTheStrong Mr. Dingle, the Strong]]", for example, features one with [[BizarreAlienBiology two heads]].
50	* ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'':
51	** In the reimagined ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Not a straight example, but played with. The Cylon Civil War happens to a large degree because Six's and Cavil's factions disagree about whether their society of ArtificialHumans should explore their humanity (Six's faction) or embrace their nature as machines and "be the best machines the Universe has ever seen" (Cavil's faction). Cavil is a real hypocrite about this, though, and most of his behavior is due to the fact that he hates having been given human form when his creators could have just as easily designed him as an omniscient God-like A.I.
52	** In the original ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'', the Cylons were originally meant to be reptilian humanoids who wore robot-like armor and spoke in synthesized, robot-like voices. By the time the Pilot was filmed, however, their backstory had been changed so that they were now the machine descendants of an extinct reptilian species.
53	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'':
54	** The System is a civilization controlled by the three powerful defense computers of the three inhabited planets of their solar system, which built the starship DSV-1. The System was administered by Altas (either cyborgs, androids, or augmented humans) and black-armored guards that appeared to be cybernetically augmented humans. There were also thousands of human slaves, descendents of the people who had built the computers that had taken over their civilization.
55	** Similarly, the Ultra of Ultraworld in Series 3 are blue-skinned humanoid creatures either summoned or created by Ultraworld (a living, artificial planet/giant computer centered around an enormous brain) to interact with captured starship crews, [[TheAssimilator whom Ultraworld intends to absorb into its gestalt]]. They walk with a jerky gait and speak in odd, robot-like cadences. The "menials", assimilated humanoid servants, are also examples of this trope: their identity, memories and emotions are recorded on a tube and stored in a library. They behave mechanistically as they toil about, maintaining Ultraworld.
56	** The Federation could be said to be an example of this; it has rigid autocratic tendencies, [[ComputerizedJudicialSystem computerized trials]], and Star One, a computer complex that controls various functions of their society. They have "grades", hierarchical classes of citizens, and Federation colonies are highly controlled environments with pharmaceuticals pumped into the air and water to pacify the people.
57	* The future world of ''Series/BuckRogersInThe25thCentury'' is much more emotionally subdued than our time. Buck finds the culture much too uptight, and the first season gets a lot of mileage out of Buck trying to loosen everybody up a bit. The second season, set on the ''Searcher'', downplayed this idea, and Admiral Asimov and Dr. Goodfellow seem much more relaxed and "down to Earth" than most future folk we'd met in the first season.
58	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Daleks and the Cybermen are both technically cyborg races that follow this trope; particularly the Cybermen. They both have robotic voices and overlap with TranshumanAliens. They are both obsessed with machine-like efficiency, but the Daleks are dedicated to [[OmnicidalManiac exterminating]] other species (especially humans and Time Lords), whereas the Cybermen are TheAssimilator.
59	* The Observers from ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' [[spoiler: who are future descendants of humanity]] hint at this with their uniformity, odd behavior, CreepyMonotone speech, and severely dulled sense of taste in contrast to their subtle perceptions of the flow of time, play this and most of the original [[TheMenInBlack MIB Mythos, see above]] pretty straight (that is, up until the episode "Letters of Transit" and the future-timeline of Season 5). It's possible the Scientific Team that September, August, and their comrades were a part of was some kind of "scientific caste" in Observer society; the behavior of the "Overseer" Observers in [[spoiler: the possible version of the year 2036 in]] the episode "Letters of Transit" were much more carnal and human-like, and did not seem to use the same CreepyMonotone (though one or more of those traits might be due to prolonged exposure to the modern/TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture human behavior of their ancestors).
60	** There appear to be no female Observers (at least none have been seen so far), and how or if they reproduce was not addressed until the final season (they grow new observers using a cloning process with genetic screening and artificial selection for desired traits via genetic engineering and disposal of "anomalies"). They are also [[DittoAliens Ditto Posthumans]], being extremely uniform, even when they appear in large numbers. [[NoNewFashionsInTheFuture They all seem to wear variations on a suit and a decades-out-of-style hat]]; this also includes when they appear in large numbers; the episodes set in the future make it clear that all Observers dress like this, not just the members of September's Scientific Team. This fashion sense is also present in their own "native" timeline even further in the future.
61	* An episode of ''Series/LostInSpace'' featured a mechanized society of humanoid cyborgs whose leader was a computer. They kidnapped Dr. Smith to repair the computer. They also had clock-like mechanisms on their chests which they could use to turn back or alter the flow of time.
62	* Played for laughs on ''Series/MorkAndMindy,'' where Ork is often depicted as a fairly sterile, mechanistic place out of touch with simple emotions. Orkans are "test tube babies" grown artificially, cloning is common, and they view individualists like Mork as disruptive or even threatening. This is why [[FunPersonified Mork]] was such a misfit there (and indeed, why Orson sent him to another planet, because Orson considered him a pest), and why Earth's culture seems so strange to "normal" Orkans like Orson.
63	* In the eighties science fiction series ''Series/{{Otherworld}}'', the Church of Artificial Intelligence filled this role for the AlternateUniverse where the heroes, an American family on vacation in Egypt, [[TrappedInAnotherWorld founded themselves stranded]]. It was the state religion of a totalitarian government that enforced strict conformity through the Zone Troopers. More like this trope is what they were striving for though, than what they actually achieved.
64	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
65	** Vulcans sometimes have elements of this, but their culture is much more complex. Their education system, however, as briefly shown in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' and more extensively in ''Film/StarTrek2009'', is very much in line with this trope and plays like a callback to the uber-intellectual, emotionless aliens of older science fiction.
66	** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
67	*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E7WhatAreLittleGirlsMadeOf What Are Little Girls Made Of?]]", the original builders of the Androids on Exo III are stated to have been a society of biological creatures who ruined their homeworld and retreated underground where they became a more mechanized, machine-like society.
68	*** The drone-like Lawgivers in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E21TheReturnOfTheArchons The Return of the Archons]]", who are controlled by an intelligent supercomputer.
69	*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E22ByAnyOtherName By Any Other Name]]", the Kelvans from the Andromeda Galaxy are implied to have a culture like this; they are completely organic beings, but in their true form they experience none of the sensory distractions of humanoids, and consider themselves much more efficient. They go about trying to take over the Milky Way with very straightforward methods (transforming Kirk's crew into vulnerable dust-cubes that only their technology can restore to human form, for example) but without any of the typical ''Trek'' villains' hamminess. The Federation is saved from them by the fact that, when in artificial humanoid form, the Kelvans become {{Sense Freak}}s and can be incapacitated in a variety of ways, such as by the effects of alcohol or unfamiliar emotions like pleasure or jealousy.
70	*** The Eyemorg (humanoid female) society in the infamous episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain Spock's Brain]]" are totally reliant on a mechanized underground industrial complex run by advanced computers (for which purpose they tried to steal Spock's brain, because they lack the knowledge to maintain this infrastructure themselves); this is in contrast to the primitive, Ice Age-like culture of males that lived on the surface.
71	*** The Fabrini from "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E8ForTheWorldIsHollowAndIHaveTouchedTheSky For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky]]" live aboard a generational asteroid ship, which they all believe is actually a planet, and are similarly run by an advanced, tyrannical computer called the Oracle. The Fabrini are less "rigidly mechanical" and more "rigidly traditional", though, the rigid traditions being enforced by the Oracle.
72	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
73	*** The Bynars from the first season episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1411001001 11001001]]" are closely dependent on their computers for survival. They have implants that connect them to their planet's central computer, have "digital" names like One Zero and Zero One, live and work in binary pairs, have a language based on binary, and when their planet's central planetary computer is fried by a nearby supernova, it almost wipes out the entire species.
74	*** The Borg are a HiveMind of {{Cyborg}} aliens that otherwise follow this trope, using cybernetically augmented humanoid bodies only as cannon fodder and servitor units.
75	*** The cauliflower-headed humanoids who abduct Picard for study in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E18Allegiance Allegiance]]" are all [[DittoAliens identical]], with no concept of individual identity or leadership. What little is revealed about their society hints at something like this trope.
76	*** The Iyaarans, a species from the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E2Liaisons Liasons]]", play this trope absolutely straight, and also like a callback to aliens from older science fiction. They are DittoAliens with rubber foreheads and jumpsuits; they lack cultural concepts like antagonism, love, joy, pleasure, crime, etc.; they all appear male and reproduce asexually by [[NoodleIncident something called post-cellular compounding, the exact mechanics of which are, fortunately, never detailed]]. Their diet is extremely bland, consisting of nutrient wafers, because they consider their need to eat as matter of sustenance only, not pleasure or enjoyment, like many other humanoids consider meals. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, they are very curious about other cultures, though they struggle to understand diverse cultures like [[TheFederation the Federation]].
77	** The [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Hierarchy]] from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' are a callback/parody/possible deconstruction of this, with their heavily regimented, computerized society, costume design, and snotty behavior.
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80	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
81	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
82	** The Adeptus Mechanicus are the "future humans" variant that have adopted this trope through MachineWorship, seeking to emulate machines in every possible way, even replacing most of their bodies with cybernetics as they climb the ranks. Everyone is judged based on their perceived material and logical value. The planets they rule are converted into [[IndustrialWorld gargantuan factories]] that exist to devour resources and spit out war materiel and other products for the wider Imperium.
83	** The T'au Empire, organic aliens who have embraced utilitarianism to section their society into a FantasticCasteSystem based on their given functions in life and where they come from. Even their names denote their particular traits, and the castes have diverged physically and mentally.
84	** Averted by the RoboticUndead Necrons (who would find the Mechanicus' embracing of the machine laughable if they could still laugh), whose culture is culture is AncientEgypt InSpace. They were tricked into going from biological to mechanical, and one of their leaders is looking for a way to turn it back.
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87	[[folder:Video Games]]
88	* The Starmen from ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994''. They're visibly metallic and they have RoboSpeak, but they're able to cast spells, and come back as ghosts, something one would not expect from robots. The fan game ''[[VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance Mother: Cognitive Dissonance]]'' reveals that [[spoiler: they were once Martians but after losing a war to [[GalacticConquerer Giegue]], they became TranshumanAliens loyal to him.]]
89	* The S'pht from Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' are all cybernetic life-forms that have destroyed most organic life on their homeworld, and have existed for so long that they are baffled when they see the main antagonistic alien species of the game, the Pfhor, not understanding how they can live without life support. They are all enslaved and simultaneously controlled by a cyborg that the Pfhor built. You end up killing him and starting a rebellion (making the S'pht the first computer-controlled allies in a video game, aside from robotic drones), but a human-made rogue AI replaces the cyborg.
90	* The Meklar of the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' series essentially began as cyborg mollusks with a cultural obsession with augmenting themselves, to the point that they've converted themselves into fully MechanicalLifeforms in the third game.
91	%%* The Space Pirates from the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series of action adventures video games.
92	* Inverted in ''Videogame/{{Starbound}}'' with the Glitch, a race of robots artificially created to naturally evolve through civilization and not realize they are robots, who ended up stuck in the Middle Ages stage because of a programming glitch, and outright [[BurnTheWitch witch hunts]] whoever gains awareness of their mechanic nature and/or try to invent new technologies that go beyond their medieval status.
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Context Main / MechanisticAlienCulture