I was talking specifically about within the universe of Humans though. Where the synths have been developed and marketed as a way of, on a personal level, dealing with chores or caretaking and, on a commercial level, as a method of replacing humans doing menial/low skill jobs. Within that context I don't think there would be any great need or desire for child synths to be created, and I think enough people would be against it for it to bring negative publicity on any synth company who tried.

I think people having relationships with synths are down to a few basic factors

1) we can project feelings on to anything, for the most part we love our cars, some even giving them names etc

2) we are new at having synths, humans are still not fully used to having them in our lives, maybe they used to them doing jobs, but I think synths being in peoples homes came later than commercial synths, so we really dont know how to react to them, hence we 1.

3) they ARE massive whole body dildos, in this world we can all agree that dildos come in many shapes, colours and sizes (along aside a large amount of other sex toys, some more creepy than others). Aside from having the correct body parts, they are a blank canvas created to serve us, the synth itself may not add emotion, but you can project anything you like onto them feelings wise, and they will do nothing to give you another impression. The way humans dont really know how to act around synths yet (2) and the fact we tend to add human feelings to objects (1) means its almost unavoidable we would do the same thing to synths, and if someone is lacking intimacy in their life/relationship, its going to be very interesting to project that on to a synth, Jill Halfpennys character, is an excellent example of this., her synth being hunky, and gives the appearance of being the idea man. Whilst a dildo will only ever be a sexual surrogate, synths are surrogates for human feelings, and a relationship.

ive said this since episode 1, people are going to give up on relationships, both men and women will stop knowing how to interact with each other in a relationship, people today dont go from being a teenage, being single for a few years, and then get married and have kids, we live much more independent lives than ever before, we take longer to settle down, and when we do, it may not last forever like we used to, we are much better at being single know, living our lives for selves, not sharing our lives with others. Add a synth into the mix, and todays single will never learn how to be part of a couple.

As far as women feeling more threatened by them, I dont buy it, its out male cop who feels useless in his relationship, with his wife due to his synth not vice versa.

If you are troubled by sex, then well lets be honest the whore house of synths is hardly ground breaking, such places exist, be it strippers or whore houses, the women in them being as equally unfeeling as the synths involved.

Where can I get one?

http://www.personasynthetics.com/

I note the websites mentions an all day battery, again why do we need charging points?

I can't seem to access the Shop feature to order one.

I was thinking about that earlier and I came to the conclusion that I don't know on the basis that they are made to last all day and can be charged overnight (even if they need to wake up to do some night care). And, of course, there aren't supposed to be any like the cop and Niska who aren't with a human. Poor bit of plotting there maybe. They just had to put one in so that Niska can charge but haven't come up with a good reason for why they exist.

It strikes me this is a little like the mpg ratings for cars, there's an official (or is it?) standard 'urban cycle' rating and the '56mph' rating, and you can guarantee you are never going to match either of those. How long do phone batteries last? This depends on standby time, whether or not you are in a poor signal area, how much call time and how long you spend playing Irritated Sparrows on it.

A synth on an 'uninteresting day' may well exceed the one-day boundary, but if you are having a party and send it out to buy unfeasibly vast quantities of beer, carrying all that is going to use a lot more power than ironing a couple of rolls and a tin of tuna.
Likewise dodging traffic, pulling trains, leaping tall buildings with a single bound...

Finally caught up with the first four episodes last night (went on holiday just as it started) - and am totally hooked

My H worked out that the policewoman was a synth (apparently it was "obvious" - just not to me!)

Am looking forward to the rest of the series - just need to catch up on this thread now

Still want to know why Leo is a different synth from the others - was he a prototype? Was he in love with Anita/Mia before she was a synth? Were they made synths at the same time - but then why is Leo different from the others? Is the policewoman another of this group of Elster's synths? What's in Elster's code? Why did Doctor George leave the project? What's going to happen to poor Odi left alone in the woods "Is this a game, George?" ?

So many questions!

AFAWK Leo is David Elser's actual human son. As a child Leo was in a car accident where he may have drowned (Mia was probably in the same accident) . He is officially listed as dead.

What presumably happened is that Elser used Synth technology to keep Leo's body alive and his mind intact.

We know Leo is human as he has red blood and needs to eat and drink.

We know he has Synth tech as his brain can read programs and he can be powered by electricity.

Hey Smint!

I think the working theory at the moment is that Leo was David Elster's son and something must have happened to him (most likely explanation would be he drowned given all the underwater flashbacks) and Elster saved his life by using his synth technology, making Leo some kind of cyborg.

Hoping we get some Odi this week, I want to know if he's run out of power yet and if he's still just hiding.

send them a message on Twitter, its not my website, so I cant help you with it

But if Mia was in the same accident, why isn't she the same sort of synth as Leo? She's so much more advanced than Leo, even though she's supposed to be 14 - that's the bit I don't understand, Unless she's been upgraded and Leo hasn't?

Poor Odi!

Hi Nat! It's Saturday we're seeing Rupert, isn't it?

Mia was built 14 plus years ago and hasn't changed in appearance since. Leo despite having some synth technology in him is still human and has therefore aged 14 years from a young boy to his current age.

As opposed to a real child which needs recharging and cleaning several times a day?

But if they were made at the same time, why is their synth "technology" so different and Leo's so inferior to Mia's? Unless she's had upgrades and hence was sold as "new", but the upgrade hasn't overwritten all of her previous human memories?

Yup. Check your text messages.

We don't know that Mia was in the same accident-in fact strictly speaking we don't know for sure that Leo was in an accident lol-although it seems likely she was involved somehow. Leo wouldn't get upgraded because he's at least part human (I think mostly human), whereas Mia is full synth. Albeit a very advanced synth capable of feeling emotions and pain.

I don't think he has. I think he was the age he now appears to be 14 years ago when whatever happened happened (when he died). Because when he went to see George last week he was talking about Elster and George said "but you're not old enough to remember him".

What makes you say Leo's synth technology is inferior? He could read the synth programme.


But isn't that because he was thinking that anyone who knew Elster would have been an adult? He wasn't imagining Elster having anything to do with children. I don't think Leo could have been an adult or George would have been likely to recognise him. Given he worked closely with Elster, it's likely he would have at least seen a photo of his son.

I meant in the context that he still has real blood, he needs food and water and as well as charging - or at least kick-starting with electricity (and needing to wee!), isn't immensely strong, feels pain, can't self-diagnose and isn't self-healing

Maybe I'm misremembering but didn't we see in the dream/flashback Leo had that he was just a child at the time of the accident.

Georges comment to me just meant that Leo was too young to be a member of the project back at the start (ie he'd be a young kid).

Probably the only young kid George would have ever seen around the project would have been David's son Leo but George believes Leo is dead so would not jump to the conclusion that his visitor was Leo.

Good point, I suppose it's possible. Makes the relationship with Mia a bit creepier if that's the case though.

Do we know how long ago Elster is supposed to have died then? And how long ago this accident was? (Because if I'm remembering right what the lady who was checking Anita said was that she must be "at least" 14 years old, so it could be longer).

I think all that is because he's (partly) human though. He only has a limited amount of synth technology in him.


Did we? I thought all we'd seen was a hand struggling with the car door handle underwater.


I can see how it might be that Leo was a small child at the time (and would make sense with Anita being so protective of Sophie), it was just my assumption to that conversation that Leo had not aged since the accident, don't know why.

I'm now wondering if it might turn out that Tom was friends with Leo back in the day and was involved in the same accident? It would be a good way of linking the stories.

But that's because he's a human, or started out as one whereas the synths started out as a piece of technology (and arguably still are).

I've watched all the eps in the last day Love it!

(Just finishing watching the 4th ep now)

But if he's the same age as Mia (he might not be!) then Mia is a far more advanced synth than Leo. So either his father deliberately made him more human/less synth, or the technology wasn't as advanced to make him to Mia's standard - unless, as I suggested earlier, she's been subsequently upgraded


Mia can't be Leo's mother, can she? Or perhaps they have/had a child. She seems to be acting as though she is/was a mother

Trying to work out a possible time line

Elster develops synths along with Millican
Leo and Mia (and maybe others) drown in the car accident
Elster makes them into human/synths (all like Leo) - probably against the rules they've set
Millican disagrees with this and leaves the company
Elster dies (is killed?)
Elster's synths are due to be upgraded but go on the run to avoid this
As they're caught, they get upgraded into "full" synths but with some residual memory

But that does't explain how Max fits in as he's an upgraded synth but was on the run with Mia and Leo?

Any other suggestions?