So here's something that a friend asked me the other night and I couldn't really give a good answer to.
In Terminator the T-100 was a Robot right? right. But, the field test versions and the implemented versions were Robots covered with living tissue that would heal and bruise and scar, and an artificial intelligence that (if set to yes) could learn and grow a personality.
Is it an android or a Cyborg?
now, traditionally I've understood Androids as being metallic (ie: robotic) beings, of minimal to true artifical intelligence able to move and act like a person, or with some form of reason.
Cyborgs I've always understood as being humans altered with cybernetic parts (hence the Cyb-part) but, if we examine the word "Cyborg" we find it's not so simple in reality. Look at the word itself, it has 2 parts: Cyb, meaning Cyber, as in robotics and electronics, and "Org" as in organic, flesh, blood organs etc.
Looking at the word Cyborg that way, the T-100 is one, it has both Cybernetic parts, but it's also partly Organic as well, having organic flesh covering it's form that can heal, scar, bleed etc.
However, it's still purely a robot and it's natural state is NOT to have true AI, it's natural state is that it cannot learn and grow a personality from experiences and interactions. But does that mean it can't be a Cyborg even with the organic parts? does it have to have an organic brain to be a Cyborg? or is thinking it has to start as an organic being, looking at the puzzle from a shallow or even naive perspective?
Now, for the TLDR people that want to complain (you know you/they exist) yes, I'm well aware this is about a movie from the 80s that almost no one remembers and effectively isn't relevant anymore even by the standards of it's own franchise. Yes, I am well aware I'm putting FAR more thought into this than the creators probably EVER did, but I'm a huge nerd. This is what I do, I take things I like, examine their universe and try to understand them by the standards of "reality" or at least what I consider to be reality (blah blah existentialism blah blah quantum mechanics blah blah)
In Terminator the T-100 was a Robot right? right. But, the field test versions and the implemented versions were Robots covered with living tissue that would heal and bruise and scar, and an artificial intelligence that (if set to yes) could learn and grow a personality.
Is it an android or a Cyborg?
now, traditionally I've understood Androids as being metallic (ie: robotic) beings, of minimal to true artifical intelligence able to move and act like a person, or with some form of reason.
Cyborgs I've always understood as being humans altered with cybernetic parts (hence the Cyb-part) but, if we examine the word "Cyborg" we find it's not so simple in reality. Look at the word itself, it has 2 parts: Cyb, meaning Cyber, as in robotics and electronics, and "Org" as in organic, flesh, blood organs etc.
Looking at the word Cyborg that way, the T-100 is one, it has both Cybernetic parts, but it's also partly Organic as well, having organic flesh covering it's form that can heal, scar, bleed etc.
However, it's still purely a robot and it's natural state is NOT to have true AI, it's natural state is that it cannot learn and grow a personality from experiences and interactions. But does that mean it can't be a Cyborg even with the organic parts? does it have to have an organic brain to be a Cyborg? or is thinking it has to start as an organic being, looking at the puzzle from a shallow or even naive perspective?
Now, for the TLDR people that want to complain (you know you/they exist) yes, I'm well aware this is about a movie from the 80s that almost no one remembers and effectively isn't relevant anymore even by the standards of it's own franchise. Yes, I am well aware I'm putting FAR more thought into this than the creators probably EVER did, but I'm a huge nerd. This is what I do, I take things I like, examine their universe and try to understand them by the standards of "reality" or at least what I consider to be reality (blah blah existentialism blah blah quantum mechanics blah blah)