I'm looking for some ideas for environments that might use cheap labor but which would preclude using droids for that function. In general, droids are more capable of working in hostile environs than most species, but here I want to go the other way. What is a good environmental reason that a ruthless company would pay to feed/shelter/equip workers rather using droids? Assume that the work, whatever it is, is tied to the location and cannot be easily relocated.

The easy idea is an environment hostile to electronics. Element X is super abundant, but the planet's magnetic field is such it raises holy **** with electronics an droids become less cost effective.

Any place with Energy spiders (Kessel), maybe some landscape with vicious thunderstorm, electric surges (Kamino-style places with a lot of electricity)

Environments with a lot of radio frequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI) can wreak havoc with electronics all right, but remain unproven as having an effect on organics. Sources of such could be solar flares, ancient technology, "element X" as the pirate suggests, nefarious actors trying to sow problems, deep-corefriction as a result of plate tectonics... hm, starting to sound like a Star Trek episode here - mundane but believable.

If the task is something rather complex, then an argument could be made that is requires a "human touch" since robots can only really operate within their programming and are not as malleable to changing circumstances. Something that is dangerous and complex enough to say "yeah, we need to have something down there that can think on it's feet". Getting a droid intelligent enough to do this might be beyond their budget (or they simply do not care to use droids and are fine with sending living beings to do the dirty work).

just about any operation in which slaves can do the labor will use slaves rather than droids. I know this is callous, but if you're a crime syndicate with no morals, a slave can die and it cost you next to nothing, but a droid can be destroyed and then be expensive to replace. You can have some creative freedom with it.

Places with loads of mynocks are perfect for Twi'Lek slaves. The pests make sure droids and electronics can't really work there since they snack on it, but Twi'leks can eat mynocks. So they make for a perfect work force there since they can forage for mynocks and still work there. How a carbon based life form can eat a silicon based life form and gain any source of nourishment from it is best left up to less sane minds, but the Rakata found a **** way to make it work. Or at least their AI did. The Rakata did a lot of weird stuff.

As for the variations of the anti-electronics theme, is there a good explanation (light on handwavium) that would prevent the use of droids but would still allow the use of electronic gear by workers? Would it be best to go with some kind of phenomenon that specifically interferes with droid brains? Perhaps an emission/field that makes droids "intoxicated" would be a possibility?

EW effects won't bother a flashlight, so it might it just makes the higher functions of a droid brain crap. They'll turn on but they're dumber than potting soil which makes organic workers necessary.

Corrosive environs might destroy a droid in a week without maintenance but a humanoid can replace skin cells etc. It might take several months for one to go blind and then become either useless or just slow.

Also, anywhere population is very high. That is why places like India and China have large amounts of cheap manual labor, and the factories don't bother with as much automation. So a massively overpopulated planet might avoid droids, and in fact the populace might have droid hate groups. "Don't let the droid steal your job! Build an Ion Wall!"

It might stem from one of the worst scenes in the prequels, but 3P0’s line of machines making machines being “perverse” has some implications, especially with the knowledge that Anakin made 3P0 and Jawas fix up and sell droids. Essentially, it seems like the norm in Star Wars is some kind of humanoids make droids instead of them being pumped out in automated factories (although different types might be, like astromechs), so a droid making factory/operation could work in this case.

Ugnaughts might also be an example of this kind of thing as well.

On 1/18/2019 at 4:58 PM, HappyDaze said:

As for the variations of the anti-electronics theme, is there a good explanation (light on handwavium) that would prevent the use of droids but would still allow the use of electronic gear by workers? Would it be best to go with some kind of phenomenon that specifically interferes with droid brains? Perhaps an emission/field that makes droids "intoxicated" would be a possibility?

On 1/18/2019 at 5:02 PM, 2P51 said:

EW effects won't bother a flashlight, so it might it just makes the higher functions of a droid brain crap. They'll turn on but they're dumber than potting soil which makes organic workers necessary.

Pretty much this. EMPs wreck havoc on transistors but do next to nothing to vacuum tubes. Sort of the idea of hydrolic circuits but for whatever equipment is needed. It should be noted just simple dust can have the same effect if it gets into electronics. A mine for high conductive metals would be **** on droids. Even if it didn’t get into the electronics it’d be wearing away joints.

The environment could be home to a particular fungus that eats away at metal or circuitry. Simple electronic tools are easy to keep clean, but something as complex as a droid is a haven for corrosive little shrooms.

Interesting question, but I think the issues that would negate using droids would be binary causes, instead of a single factor.

For instance, the thing that makes most electronics "waterproof" is rubber (a flora based product) and if you have an organism that eats rubber in a humid environment, that will lead to malfunctioning robots (in time).

But a plant eating microbe won't affect organic life forms in a humid environment wouldn't be bad for sophonts.

Another thought: Have an extremophile (micro organism) that loves to eat paint that lives in an humid saline environment. So the Droid will have their paint and protective coating mysteriously wear out over time and then their metal components start rusting.

Also plastic is a component that would be appetizing for certain extremophiles.

As far as I know, Silcates are a compound that are so neutral that they would NOT be metabolized by anything. So circuit boards are safe?

I did also want to touch on the point of organic creatures 'eating' machinery, because that's something that actually happens in real life.

Some rodents love to chew on metal and plastic wires to wear their teeth down. (Some rodents have teeth that constantly grow and if they're not taken care of, the teeth will grown to impossible to eat proportions).

So it's not that wild an assumption that some organic critters will love to chew on defenseless droids. It may still be a senseless activity, but it doesn't change the fact that the droids keep getting chewed on! (Stupid Mynoks)!

Heck, why do some whales beach themselves? Surely the whales know that they'll die if they do that. Don't they? (Best we can figure, those whales are very very sick and don't feel well . . . but why?).

Also, why do we chew gum? We can't metabolize gum! Why? It's pointless! (Full disclosure, yes I chew gum on occasion).

You could always have to planet be home a mid to large size predator, that some time in the long past, a race trained to hunt droids. Now they view droids as their personal dog toys.

2 hours ago, Edgookin said:

You could always have to planet be home a mid to large size predator, that some time in the long past, a race trained to hunt droids. Now they view droids as their personal dog toys.

Oh, you've met my dogs. They're less that 30lbs each, but the two of them working together can destroy anything less robust than an old tire in moments.

8 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Oh, you've met my dogs. They're less that 30lbs each, but the two of them working together can destroy anything less robust than an old tire in moments.

30 lbs? Maybe together! I'd put them at 15 lbs each!

But yes, they can tear anything apart with casual contempt and enjoy every minute.

5 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

30 lbs? Maybe together! I'd put them at 15 lbs each!

But yes, they can tear anything apart with casual contempt and enjoy every minute.

Loki is 25 lbs. and Ember is 28 lbs. as of the vet visit last month.

2 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Loki is 25 lbs. and Ember is 28 lbs. as of the vet visit last month.

And apparently it's all muscle. Hard to believe two dogs that small would weigh that much!