By Steve Benford

Director James Cameron's acclaimed science-fiction film Aliens turns 40 in August, four decades on from its 1986 release. It is the sequel to Ridley Scott's claustrophobic 1979 breakout hit Alien. Where the original featured one terrifying creature, Cameron's movie features hundreds — and pits them against a squad of space marines. The film earned seven Academy Award nominations, including a best actress nod for Sigourney Weaver, and won two, for visual effects and sound editing.

A host of intriguing technologies make an appearance, including interstellar travel, hypersleep (in which humans are preserved in stasis for long space journeys), and terraforming (making other worlds livable for humans).

Some of the technologies shown on screen have already come to pass — or look likely to soon. Others were missed, and some remain firmly in the realm of science fiction.

In Aliens, the marines travel to a distant moon to investigate the disappearance of more than 100 human settlers. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the main protagonist of the first film, goes along to advise. On arrival, they run into a six-year-old girl, called Newt, who managed to escape the grisly fate of the other colonists. When the marines encounter the alien hive, chaos and carnage ensue.

The technology featured in Aliens appears to exist in service of the storytelling rather than to predict the path of innovation, as a futurologist might. But it is worth taking a closer look.

The film is set in 2179, 153 years into our future. Journeying 153 years into the past would land us in 1893, when common technologies were horse-drawn transport, steam streetcars and gas lighting. Typewriters with Qwerty keyboards went on sale the following year.

An Industrial Aesthetic

The world has moved on considerably since then, yet the future of Aliens feels less distant in many respects. Company executives use clunky business cards to trigger low-resolution video calls and wave computer printouts during meeting-room showdowns. For modern audiences, however, the absence of personal electronic devices may be jarring — one can only assume they must have fallen out of favor by 2179.

The gritty, industrial visual style established in the first film is taken further here. Aliens introduces a variety of military vehicles that combine futuristic elements with real hardware used in the Vietnam War. The movie's look influenced later films, but it has also been described as "everyday" and "ugly."

An exception is the tracking technology: the motion detectors, wearable cameras and biosensors embedded in wristbands. These feel broadly "current." Extrapolating from the present day, though, one might expect engineers of 2179 to make greater use of surveillance cameras and computer vision — a sub-field of AI in which machines are trained to "understand" images and video. A network of "smart cameras" throughout the moon colony could have tracked both the aliens and the humans. Similar networks today monitor crowds and individuals — and watch for suspicious behavior — on city streets and public transport.

Sentry Guns and Exoskeletons

The robots of Aliens are striking. Some are not so far removed from hardware used today, though with notable differences.

In two separate scenes, Ripley straps into a massive mechanical suit known as a "loader." Loaders are mainly used to move cargo but can conveniently be appropriated for fighting xenomorphs — the name the franchise gives its alien creatures. They are a type of exoskeleton — real-life wearable technology that may enhance human strength or movement.

Exoskeletons are not generally used for this kind of task yet. Large autonomous or teleoperated factory robots are the go-to technology for lifting heavy hardware, which is safer than having humans operate in such hazardous environments. Current exoskeletons are smaller in scale than the loaders. They are helping people walk again after traumatic injury, and commercial versions are available to support those with mobility issues in hill walking. Industrial versions are also being trialled in factories and warehouses to reduce strain on workers doing repetitive lifting.

The war in Ukraine, meanwhile, has familiarized the public with autonomous combat robots. One or two share a striking resemblance to the film's automated sentry guns, which guard an entrance passage in the colony. Drone aircraft, in heavy use today, are notable by their absence.

One robot in Aliens, however, operates at a level far beyond the rest: the android Bishop, played by Lance Henriksen. Bishop looks human on the outside and is referred to in the film as a "synthetic." By 2179, synthetics appear to be approaching human levels of cognitive function — something known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). They even seem to observe the laws of robotics devised by scientist and author Isaac Asimov, who first set them out in his fiction of the 1940s. In one scene, Bishop tells crew members that he cannot harm a human or allow one to be harmed — Asimov's first law.

Synthetics occupy capable, realistic bodies that seem to incorporate soft robotics. In this real research area, scientists create robots with flexible materials instead of hard ones, such as metal, and fluids or pressurized air generate movement rather than conventional electric actuators. The synthetics probably have soft robotic systems overlaid on a rigid framework, similar to flesh on bone, and are therefore likely to be a mixture of soft and conventional robotics.

The Tech Conundrum

Some of the technology in Aliens remains well out of reach. There are no propulsion systems capable of sending crews to other stars and back within a lifetime. As for hypersleep, humans have in rare cases survived extreme hypothermia for over an hour, but this is not recommended. Terraforming, meanwhile, remains resolutely theoretical.

But what of the synthetics? Rightly or wrongly, many researchers and companies aspire to create humanoid robots and achieve AGI — an ambition that has attracted substantial corporate investment amid rapid advances in AI — and the public is bombarded with visions of their latest efforts on social media. A proportion of those working on such ventures, however, are looking to raise money. Many experts would argue that synthetic humans like those in the Alien movies are still far beyond today's capabilities.

This leads to a striking conundrum at the heart of Aliens. Why aren't there more synthetics? Why not send a population of them to terraform worlds or fight aggressive ETs?

Perhaps humans are more expendable: maybe we will end up doing AI's dirty work because we are the cheaper commodity. But there is a more optimistic answer. Maybe, despite all of our apparent failings and weaknesses, humans are the more capable beings. After all, it is Ripley — not Bishop — who, wildly improvising with available technologies and driven by her unstoppable desire to protect Newt, defeats the alien queen. Perhaps there is hope yet for our species.

— The Conversation via Reuters Connect

Steve Benford is a Professor of Collaborative Computing at the University of Nottingham.

Source: BusinessWorld — https://bworldonline.com/arts-and-leisure/2026/08/25/772077/aliens-at-40-from-wearable-cameras-to-exoskeletons-here-are-the-technologies-the-film-predicted/