- Apr 24, 2020
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That was actually the name of the novel the series was inspired by. It was written by Martin CaidenWords change meaning over time, and I'm sure there's no real consensus on this. But in my understanding:
1) A robot is a machine that can range from looking nothing like a human (ie a roomba) to looking somewhat like a human, but should fall on the "not a human" side of the uncanny valley.
2) A cyborg is a human that has some machine parts. Officially, someone with a pacemaker is a cyborg, though people tend to think of this more as artificial powered limbs. The Six Million Dollar Man was definitely a cyborg..
The dividing line between robot and android could be very blurry. For instance, if it is obviously artificial (no one fooled) but it has an expressive face that makes use of facial expression to help communicate with humans, it might still be considered an android. I would also consider the level of programing/AI. A robot would probably fail, but a good android would pass the Turing Test.3) An android is a robot on the other side of the uncanny valley. Very hard to tell apart from a human. The replicants in Blade Runner were androids.