Droid Rage

[vovat]

I've seen a few mentions recently (written by people who have no connection, as far as I know) that people don't consider androids to be robots. While I guess it depends on the definition you use, wouldn't you say that an android is a "machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill"? I can see why an android might not WANT to be called a robot, since the term derives from a Czech word meaning "slave," but I would say an android is technically a robot designed to replicate a human. Am I wrong here?

Of course, Star Wars complicates things by referring to all robots, even ones that aren't at all humanoid in form, as "droids." Then again, this is the same galaxy where people think a parsec is a unit of time, isn't it?

Comments

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Actually, technically the word "android" means "man-like" or "resembling man." Straight greek stuff.

Anyway, I prefer the term "artificial person," as Bishop said in Aliens.

But they're definitely robots.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

So would a robot made to resemble a woman be a gyndroid?

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

She'd be a fem-bot

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Actually, according to Wikipedia:

An android is a robot designed to look and act human.[1] The word derives from ανδρός, the genitive of the Greek ανήρ anēr, meaning "man", and the suffix -eides, used to mean "of the species; alike" (from eidos, "species"). Though the word derives from a gender-specific root, its usage in English is usually gender neutral; the female counterpart, gynoid, is generally used only when the female gender is a distinguishing trait of the robot. The term was first mentioned by St. Albertus Magnus in 1270[2] and was popularized by the French writer Villiers in his 1886 novel L'Ève future, although the term "android" appears in US patents as early as 1863 in reference to miniature humanlike toy automations.[3]

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Albertus Magnus, teacher of Thomas Aquinas? Wow, you learn something new every day.

Androids

[samuraifrog.livejournal.com]

Indeed; an android is a robot in the shape of a human being.

Star Wars is also the universe where 'droids have emotions and apparently feel pain.

Re: Androids

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I know Bender doesn't have any emotions, and sometimes that makes him sad.

[petie-s.livejournal.com]

On the "parsec" thing:

This is definitely retconning, but I heard an actual explanation for it. It takes lots of small hyperdrive jumps to get across the asteroid field. So, instead of time, you can also measure it in the distance (that is, the fewest total jumps used). Lame, I think, but there was an official explanation.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised George Lucas didn't just go back and change that line. {g}

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

The story I heard was that that mistake was intentional. Lucas wanted Han to sound like someone who didn't really know what he was talking about.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I'm agreeing with everyone else here. Android is a type of robot. Cyborg, though, that causes some complications...

By the way, would you consider the Tin Man an android or a cyborg? Or both, since he was partially tin at one point?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The Tin Man isn't really mechanical in any way. He was living flesh, and now he's living metal (with a combination of both for a little while). I'll admit that it's tricky from a biological standpoint, though, because we don't HAVE living metal in the mundane Outside World.

I do think that Clocker from Pirates could be considered a cyborg, as he appears to have both organic and mechanical parts.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I haven't read Pirates yet, but it is on my to-read list. So far I've only read about a third of RPT's books, which is funny, because I was able to read Hidden Valley and Merry-Go_Round ages ago at my local library and the books by Jack Snow and John R. Neill at another somewhat local library.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Pirates was actually the last of the Famous Forty that I read, as I couldn't find either a library copy or one for sale that I could afford at that point. Eventually, someone gave me a Del Rey copy that she wasn't using for free.

The county library where I grew up actually had Merry Go Round, but no other non-Baum Oz books. (It did have Dorothy of Oz, but that was the work of someone else named Baum. {g})

[newwwoz.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I guess Tik-Tok would be an android, albeit a rather round (and wound) one. I don't think the cast-iron man in "The Magical Monarch of Mo" would count.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, the Cast-Iron Man appears to be mechanical, and is in the shape of a human (albeit a gigantic one). On the other hand, he isn't made to perform human tasks, but simply to crush things. Actually, it was probably a mistake for Scowleyow to make him in human form, as a robot with three or four legs would probably have been harder to trip up.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

I suppose Ruggedo's Giant with the Hammer falls under the same category as the Cast-Iron Man then.