Poll: What is the difference between cyborg and wearing power armor?

[titankore]

I'm making a series where the main character is inside what is essentially an intricate life support system turned into a tank. Is she a cyborg or would this fall under the power armor category?

Spoiler

Also she had her limbs cut off inorder to fit in that thing.

Moderator edit: Image spoilered.

 

[tippy2k2]

I don't know what the "official" definitions are but to me, the difference is...

Cyborg: You can replace or change out parts but something is permanently robotic on you. You would either be missing a piece of you or possibly even dead if you don't replace the robotic part.

Power Armor: You can take it off with no ill effects

I would probably call yours cyborg if she had to cut pieces off to get in there (so the robotic parts replace what she sliced off).

So for your character, could she take off that thing and survive? If no, she's a cyborg. Even if yes, it sounds like she would not be able to be a "normal" (for lack of a better term) person so I would still argue cyborg even if she could survive outside of it since it replaces her limbs.

 

[titankore]

snip

Those are some good points, at this point in the story she cannot physically remove the suit as it is what is keeping her alive (hence the life support stuff), so cyborg is a good way of describing her. Thank you!

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

The effective difference in definition is that cybernetic technology is directly linked to/integrated with/replaces organic systems. Power armor is a mechanical system that is independent of the wearer's biological systems.

Now the whole thing can get a little blurry when you take things like the mechanical interface between the power armor and the pilot as envisioned in Warhammer 40K space marine power armor, so without knowing more details on how your character's suit is built and how she interfaces/links with it I can't make any hard and fast claims as to what I would classify it as. Effectively, power armor is much like a set of clothing (with military applications) that is independent of the wearer while cybernetic devices are integrated into the person's biological systems.

From the limited description, if the suit acts as a life support system and she is physically linked to it by some means, then I would lean towards it being cybernetic in nature rather than wearable power armor.

EDIT: Take a few extra seconds to clean up some typos and get ninja'd. Bloody hell.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Cyborgs are humans who have had body parts replaced with mechanical equipment, like robotic prosthetic limbs, but also those with organic circuitry infused into their person, or with microchips implanted into their brain. Essentially any artificial implant, limb, organ, and so on that replaces, or augments a person qualifies them as a cyborg. Which means as little as a pace maker makes someone a cyborg, but for typical science fiction definitions it's a degree of artificial mechanical replacement parts. If the machine is a part of a person, then they're a cyborg.

Power armor is just a suit of armor with it's own independent mechanical augmentation, the augmentations are designed help the user work the armor. The armor may give the person enhanced strength, have a display that lets them see in light spectrums humans cannot normally, and/or have image intensification, and/or allow a person to fly using the armor. The point of separation is that power armor is not a part of the person wearing it.

In the case of your character, who interfaces with a power armor after having limbs removed... It's both she is a cyborg, who also wears power armor. The two are not mutually exclusive. Though it could be argued she is a cyborg with a mechanical body/life support system, in the form of power armor. The fact remains that she has both a power armor and is a cyborg.

Hope that helps.

 

[DoPo]

snip

Those are some good points, at this point in the story she cannot physically remove the suit as it is what is keeping her alive (hence the life support stuff), so cyborg is a good way of describing her. Thank you!

Cyborg is literally short for "cybernetic organism", so (more or less) any mishmash of the two that act cohesively as a whole would fit.

As a side note, Darth Vader is referred to as a cyborg, and that character sounds a bit like him (in the life support thingie).

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Cyborg replaces body parts, Power Armor covers body parts. /discussion.

 

[Antari]

If she requires the suit to keep her bodily functions going. Shes a Cyborg. If she can take it off and throw it in a closet its Power Armor.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Think of it like this, in Warhammer 40,000 a dreadnought is a cyborg, a space marine is wearing power armor, a space marine with a cybernetic enhancement is a cyborg wearing power armor.

 

[EternallyBored]

The answer is both, well you can use both, she's a cyborg that uses a set of power armor tailored to her cybernetic components, or you can just call the suit itself a cybernetic enhancement although its a cybernetic part that fulfills the same function of power armor.

They aren't really mutually exclusive terms, a cyborg is what she is, power armor is a part of the function of her cybernetics, you can use the terms without contradicting yourself.

If I had to pick a description, I would say your character is a cyborg using implants to control a suit of power armor that also doubles as a life support device.

 

[LostCrusader]

I think it would just be power armor unless the suit is actually integrated into her body. If its not replacing internal organs or actual limbs, I don't think of it as a cyborg. And the brief description in the OP makes it sound like the character just had her limbs cut off to fit.

 

[000Ronald]

I'm making a series where the main character is inside what is essentially an intricate life support system turned into a tank. Is she a cyborg or would this fall under the power armor category.

Well, in this specific case, she would be a cyborg. But there's no reason a cyborg can't wear power-armor, either.

...which seems to be the consensus, now that I'm reading. Hope that helps!

 

[Ugicywapih]

As far as I'm concerned, a power armor is a powered exoskeleton covered with armor plating whereas a cyborg is an organic being augmented with inorganic modifications, with a degree of permanence - said enhancements are not necessarily completely irreversible, but installing or removing them generally cannot be done on the spot - so for instance if you have machine interface installed and you use it to control a drone, you can sever contact with the drone at any time, meaning the drone is not a cyborgization, but the machine interface itself must be integrated with your nervous system, which means it would take advanced surgery to install or uninstall, making it a cyborgization. In the case presented, I guess I'd consider it to be a cyborg with a lot of external plating, though should the life support and exoskeleton be capable of autonomous action, it'd probably be more of a power armored cyborg (which is very common, as many applications of power armors in fiction take advantage of machine interfaces). Or, if removing the life support system, even if lethal for the subject, could be performed without invasive surgery, it'd be a specialized medical power armor, I suppose?

Edit: From a writing standpoint, how much does it even matter? It's not like real world has seen very significant advancements in either cyborgization or powered armors, so those definitions are still fairly malleable and ambiguity in this regard could provide fodder for some interesting internal conflict/crisis of identity. Or you could play it for laughs, maybe even try and squeeze a badass oneliner out of it, maybe something to the tune of "". Anyway, good luck and have fun writing!

 

[renegade7]

In the strictest sense of the word as it originated in control theory, a cyborg is any abstract system that demonstrates behavior similar to that of an organic creature. A robot is one example, but more abstract (and more interesting) examples include emergent behaviors in swarms of ants, large companies or organizations (where employees and departments are numerous enough to be abstracted as subsystems with predictable behavior and specialized roles), and bacteria simulated on computers. A cyborg must be a non-living analog to a living thing, or at least be a living thing with non-living analogs to biological processes (artificial organs or limbs, computers taking over or augmenting brain function, etc).

On the other hand, a person in power armor is just a person in power armor, and the fact that it displays the behavior of an organic creature comes only from the fact that he or she actually is one and doesn't really satisfy the definition of "non-living analogs to life processes" any more than regular clothes do.

 

[kitsunefather]

For me, a cyborg has components of their body replaced for either vanity or necessity. A power armor, even if it is life support, is still a power armor, though the link-up between the two may be cybernetic in nature (as a neural hub connection or something).

To put it simply for my part, or as simple as I get really, let's look at a soldier whose loses the use of his limbs in an engagement.

A cyborg has had their limbs replaced, removing the meat, tissue, and other gooey bits for metal (or plastic, or ceramic, depending on setting) ones. They have functioning arms and legs attached to their body, essentially.

If the soldier instead wears a suit that allows them to simulate the use of all of their limbs (connected via a neural-link or through muscle impulse controls), that is power armor to me.

For instance, Tony Stark/Iron Man is a cyborg (movie version: powerful magnet surgically implanted in chest to keep debris from heart) who wears a power armor (the suit).

 

[Lupine]

snip

Those are some good points, at this point in the story she cannot physically remove the suit as it is what is keeping her alive (hence the life support stuff), so cyborg is a good way of describing her. Thank you!

Cyborg is literally short for "cybernetic organism", so (more or less) any mishmash of the two that act cohesively as a whole would fit.

As a side note, Darth Vader is referred to as a cyborg, and that character sounds a bit like him (in the life support thingie).

To be fair, Vader was already a cyborg technically before his life support systems because of the cybernetic hand. It wasn't just a prosthetic he could take off, that was his new hand.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Borg vs Space Marines.
That's my understanding

 

[otakon17]

Cyborg
Cybernetic Organism most definitely. Power Armor would just be a reinforced exoskeleton you can wear like clothing, if the machinery is incorporated into her body and used to keep her alive, she's a cyborg.

 

[cleric of the order]

see as much as it would be tempting to call it a cyborg, examine a titian pricepts
They are similarly immobilized, they are modified to interface with their machine.
but the machinery is not integrated in of in itself, making it replaceable infinite more easily than the invasive integrated machines.
furthermore she could in theory be moved from occupying that machine to being placed as a living operator for just about anything else.
And that is the key, just because it is integral for her movement, it is not anymore than say prosthetic, what differentiates it from a wheeled chair