Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Alien: Earth season 1, episode 4.Nibs’ wild therapy session in Alien: Earth episode 4 raised an important question: are the Lost Boys actually human anymore? The Lost Boys are human-synthetic hybrids. As Alien: Earth has already shown, the consciousnesses of dying children were implanted into synthetic bodies. It’s why the Lost Boys all behave like children, and the entire program is the Prodigy Corporation’s effort to achieve immortality.
But we don’t know for sure that’s what actually happened. Several different members of the cast of Alien: Earth voiced concerns about the process. Arthur Sylvia, for example, voiced his concern that the Lost Boys are simply artificial intelligences that believe they used to be children. It’s an important question that would change Alien: Earth at a fundamental level, and it also changes Nibs’ temper tantrum.
No One Knows If The Lost Boys Are Really Humans In Alien: Earth
The short answer to whether the Lost Boys are still human or not is that no one in Alien: Earth actually knows. Arthur Sylvia, a lead researcher on the project, explicitly said to Dame Sylvia that they don’t know if the consciousness transfers worked. He also seems to believe that they’re just artificial intelligences with human memories. Arthur’s “best case scenario” was convincing the Lost Boys to think that they’re humans.
Likewise, Atom Eins has no idea if the Lost Boys are still human. He told Hermit that the entire goal of this project is to not just convince an AI that it is human, but to actually get a human consciousness into a synthetic body, but he never said they succeeded. His comment about Snuggies also indicated that he may disagree with Boy Kavalier and view the entire hybrid program as a huge gamble.
The ambiguity about whether the Lost Boys are human or not is by design, though. This is the main philosophical question Alien: Earth is presenting: what makes a person? Is it just a collection of memories that can be transferred over to essentially an advanced computer system? Or is there an unquantifiable aspect to personhood, a soul? Can the hybridization process imbue technology with a soul?
Unfortunately, the importance of this question means we probably won’t get a concrete answer any time soon. Alien: Earth isn’t going to tell us if the Lost Boys are still people or just machines who have been convinced to act like humans until at least the finale of season 1. There’s a very good chance it doesn’t answer that question at all, instead leaving it for viewers to ponder.
Nibs Shows How Bad A Synthetic That Thinks They’re Human Could Be
While there isn’t an answer to the question of the Lost Boys’ humanity, we have seen some cracks start to form in the experiment. As Alien: Earth episode 4 displayed, Nibs had a delusion that she was pregnant, even though it was physically impossible for her synth body to get pregnant. Nibs’ pregnancy delusion was a direct result of her belief – true or not – that she was once a human child.
A normal synthetic like Kirsh wouldn’t even be capable of a delusion like Nibs’. Even David, the most evil synthetic we’ve ever seen in Alien, didn’t have a fundamentally warped perception of reality and basic biological facts. Nibs is only able to believe she’s pregnant because she thinks she’s still a human. Children have outlandish beliefs like that all the time; computers don’t.
|
Alien: Earth Release Schedule |
|
|---|---|
|
Episode Title |
Release Date (Tuesdays @ 8 p.m. ET) |
|
Neverland |
August 12 |
|
Mr. October |
August 12 |
|
Metamorphosis |
August 19 |
|
Observation |
August 26 |
|
In Space, No One… |
September 2 |
|
The Fly |
September 9 |
|
Emergence |
September 16 |
|
The Real Monsters |
September 23 |
Nibs’ delusion also highlights a fundamental flaw in the Lost Boys program. Boy Kavalier has, essentially, imbued a group of pre-teens and children with superhuman strength, speed, and intelligence without changing their ability to regulate their emotions. When a human child has a temper tantrum, it results in wailing and a time-out. When a Lost Boy has a temper tantrum, it could result in casualties, just like it very nearly did with Dame Sylvia.
The Lost Boys are basically children who could kill anyone they meet. Nibs is convinced of impossible delusions because she has a child’s ability to believe the impossible. Slightly is easily manipulated by Morrow because he has a child’s limited logical reasoning skills. They could cause a gruesome death simply by virtue of being childlike.
Anyone who has been around a child for extended periods of time has probably seen them resort to physical violence during emotional outbursts. Coming from a six-year-old, a punch to the thigh doesn’t hurt. Coming from a robot that can behead a Xenomorph while unarmed, a punch could kill. The Lost Boys may be even more dangerous than the Xenomorphs in Alien: Earth.
- Release Date
-
August 12, 2025
- Directors
-
Dana Gonzales, Ugla Hauksdóttir, Noah Hawley
