Synthetic sleeper agents are androids programmed to conceal their true identity and/or purpose from those around them. While some sleeper agents will merely operate as synthetics programmed with ulterior motives concealed from their associates (and possibly the android itself), the advancement of android technology has allowed some synthetics to effectively pose as human, concealing their very nature from the people they operate beside. However, as many vessels, settlements and colonies are typically equipped with at least one synthetic, it is often not necessary to hide a sleeper agent's artificial nature.