How would you address R2-D2? By Lucasfilm – R2-D2 – StarWars.com Encyclopedia, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38400151	A he/him/his or it/it/its?

Is Your Robot a She, He or It?

What if your robot, named R2-D2, raises human children after landing on an alien planet? Would you write the following?

• R2-D2 raised her children. She raised them well, for which they thanked her.
• R2-D2 raised his children. He raised them well, for which they thanked him.
• R2-D2 raised its children. It raised them well, for which they thanked it.
• R2-D2 raised ser children. Se raised them well, for which they thanked sem.

What’s up with the last example?

I made up the ser possessive pronoun, along with the subject and object versions.

If R2-D2 is a sentient entity akin to humans, might sentient robots deserve the dignity of having pronouns reserved for them? Should there be a pronoun valid for any sentient creature? This could be any self-aware being such as: demon, fairy, extraterrestrial, advanced robot, and us.

It could apply to hybrids such as a robot-human-octopus.

Let your mind reign free.

What is a Personal Pronoun?

Most people will refer to another person by her, him, or them.

Like other pronouns, personal pronouns are used in place of nouns to allow us to speak and write more concisely. Personal pronouns change form based on the grammar rules for them.

Pronouns are a key to how others may identify someone. How pronouns are used depends on inclusive language across cultures.

Different languages use pronouns differently from English speakers.

These are the rules and practice for regular writing. If you are writing speculative fiction, you may need to use pronouns for non-human characters, possibly some who are neither female nor male. Some speculative fiction has accomplished this in effective ways. 

For instance, Becky Chamber’s A Psalm for the Wild-Built covers issues of personhood and gender identity. In speculative fiction, writers can tackle both; personhood and gender identity.

What is a Person?

I believe we can agree a raccoon is not a person. Similarly we would also agree a coffee mug is not a person. The raccoon, although living, is not a human. The coffee mug is an inanimate object.

But what if your story involves both a sentient raccoon and a coffee mug equipped with sensors and a highly sophisticated alternate intelligence? (Must electronic intelligence be artificial?)

In a speculative setting the situation muddies. The question is: What is personhood?

Aha, dear reader, we are delving into the philosophical issues of what defines a person.

Personhood includes the ability of a being to recognize huself (I invented a pronoun) as a distinct entity. The concept includes agency, meaning the ability to make choices and act upon them. This combination implies the being expresses hu’s (another invented pronoun) autonomy to pursue goals and shape what hu (oops, another invention) does.

Think of a fully autonomous vehicle exploring the ocean inside an ice-covered moon. Could such a vehicle be a person?

In a nutshell, a person is distinct and has agency. Then what about gender?

Genderless Pronouns

On Earth, much life is either female or male. Some, such as some flowers, include both. Some other languages have built-in rules for genderless pronouns. Could English speakers borrow Farsi’s u (او) for she or he?

There are some proposed English alternatives.

Robots are generally entities built from electromechanical parts and electronics. Hence robots do not need gender, although you could endow one with gender. More on that later.

As for organic extraterrestrials, would one necessarily expect them to be female or male?

Must ETs have gender?

Could organic extraterrestrials have exotic genders of your own invention?  Could your Oooga-oogalog reproduce using a five-some mating ritual?  Sure, it’s your story. But would this be fantasy or science fiction? Could life have plausibly evolved elsewhere to employ such a means of reproduction?

Let’s consider why life on Earth has gender. In a nutshell, blame parasites.

Could you world-build the ecology where parasites didn’t evolve to exist? Would your extraterrestrial sapiens reasonably be androgynous? Would sexual asymmetry be necessary?

Evolutionary science has much to say on this topic. Although asexual reproduction is possible, two genders appear to be simplest means for random chance to have evolved the most optimal means of reproduction.

World-building Your ETs

You will need to consider the extent of your world-building skills such as considering these questions.  Furthermore, consider these factors.

Perhaps you can invent a science-based possibility for life evolving in a non-Earth environment? This would require lots of effort. Plus you would have to orient your reader to a setting—without loads of info dumping. Are you up to this challenge?

Myself, I’ll stick to the more Earth-like scenarios.

Plausibly, advanced ETs would have recreated their own robotics or equivalent. Perhaps these ET robots have usurped their masters. Perhaps these robots created their own organic creatures employing a five-some mating ritual? One never knows. By taking evolution out of equation, Bob’s your uncle—or an ET equivalent you invent for the expression.

You could also invent genderless ETs, whereby robots combine with organics. Oops, someone already has.

How the Borg Reproduce?

The Borg doesn’t reproduce. Famously, they assimilate!

They are cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a hive mind called “The Collective”. The Borg co-opted the technology and knowledge of other alien species to the Collective through the process of “assimilation”: forcibly transforming individual beings into “drones” by injecting nanoprobes (see my post on nanites) into their bodies and surgically augmenting them with cybernetic components.

After assimilation, a drone’s race and gender become “irrelevant”. 

Gender identity for The Borg is more nuanced than simply irrelevant. The Star Trek Borgs later included a Borg Queen, among other developments. Nevertheless, I’ll return back to robots.

Should one endow a robot with gender?

What if you create a robotic spouse, akin to the Pygmalion legend? In this case, create your robot to include gender features, and voila, love could be in the air.

Gendering robotic bodies can be important in some stories, even robots inherently need no genders. The reader can judge for herself or himself whether these stories are effective.

Already, real-life robots are endowed with gender .

Summary

Finally, check out: Do aliens have gender?

Bear in mind, to make these possibilities plausible, your alien race should have achieved technological intelligence prior. Then your aliens could have self-engineered themselves to employ some of the exotic possibilities described in the link.

However, their rationale for doing this remains up to you.

Peter Spasov. Last updated Monday December 15, 2025