Alright, this is something that's been bugging me for a while, and I don't really know what to do with it. So I figured I should bring it up for discussion.
I'm sure you can all see where this is going from the title, but there's a lot of confusion and mistagging going on between the "mechanical creature" type tags, specifically android, cyborg, and robot, but I'm also going to drag mech into this. I think it's about time we clear up these tags, and we need to come to some kind on consensus before I go and start changing things.
The big issue in my eyes is that the wikis are MOSTLY correct, but don't offer any guidance on how to properly tag borderline cases. There's also just a lot of simple mistagging, and I'm probably going to have to take that up on a tagging project. For quick reference, here are the wiki definitions.
Current Definitions
Android: A robot with the characteristics of a human. This differs from a cyborg, which is a living creature with mechanical components.
Cyborg: A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts.
Robot: A robot is a mechanical intelligent agent which can perform tasks on its own, or with guidance. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and come in those two basic types: those which are used for research into human-like systems, such as ASIMO and TOPIO, as well as those into more defined and specific roles, such as Nano robots and Swarm robots; and helper robots which are used to make or move things or perform menial or dangerous tasks, such as Industrial robots or mobile or servicing robots. Another common characteristic is that, by its appearance or movements, a robot often conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own.
Mech: NA
Here are the issues and my suggested fixes. I want to get people's opinion on these before I go and start changing wikis and creating implications/aliases all over the place.
Android
- It implies robot, but that implication doesn't exist yet. I think we can all agree that there should be an implication of Android -> robot.
- It specifically states that it's a robot with "human" characteristics. Since this is a furry site, I think the word "human" in the wiki needs to be changed to "humanoid" or possibly "anthropomorphic" to actually make sense. I think I'd prefer to switch it to "humanoid" but what do you think?
- Can androids be four legged? Is this post #176731 an android? I vote that androids, by definition, should be "humanoid." Ie, bipedal, with an upright posture, and somewhat resemble a human figure. The word android comes from the words "andro" and "eids," which mean "human" and "shape" respectively, therefore adding feral robotic creatures to this list goes directly against the word's actual definition and etymology.
- The wiki should reflect whether or not we decide if 'feral' androids should not be a thing.
- Perhaps we should come up with another tag for "robots resembling animals" or something. I don't have a good suggestion.
- Androids are also usually attributed with complete autonomy, not needing to have a human pilot. They're also usually self aware. It is also often implied that they have a form of free will and near human level intelligence and reasoning, sapient if you will. I think this should be added to the wiki, but it's a little subjective. What do you think?
- Would transformers be androids? By this definition, I think they would. Just very large androids.
- Herein lies the gray zone, what are the visual differences between an android and a cyborg? When a character has some biological looking bits to it, but also has some cybernetic bits to it, where do we draw the line between the two? Since we can only tag what we see, it gets a bit hard to differentiate the two without knowing the character's underlying blueprints. For example, General Grevious from Star Wars looks like an android, a robot designed to look and operate like a "human" type being. But he actually has a few organic parts to him, so he's technically a cyborg, right? Yes, but you can't usually see that, unless you get a closeup of his biological eyes, or a view of the few actual organs contained in his chest. I'd say that, in most cases, creatures like Grevious should be tagged android on e621. However, things like synthetic skin and cybernetic implants underneath real skin muddy the waters even further.
- The Wiki needs to give a better description of the visual differences, but I'm not sure of the wording. How about "An android possesses no obviously biological or organic parts, but instead is made up of only mechanical or cybernetic pieces. A cyborg, on the other hand, must show some kind of organic component, ie a bran, or organs, or obviously organic skin."
- Example pictures should be added for obvious androids, and gray area exceptions.
- post #384745 is obviously an android, not a single organic part to be seen.
- post #323499 is a little in the gray area, in that you can see some pieces that MIGHT be organic, or might be synthetic. This post should probably be tagged as android, since the lines and buttons on the skin imply that it is fake, meaning that the entire creature is probably non organic, just engineered to look like it.
- post #452354 is probably a cyborg, and not an android. The only obviously mechanic bit is her arm, and everything else is most likely biological
Suggested new wiki definition:
"An android is a robot with mainly humanoid characteristics, including a bipedal stance and an upright posture. Robots that have animal characteristics, like zoids for example, are not androids because they are not humanoid. Most androids are self aware and often times sapient, but at the very least they display self-sufficiency, not being piloted or controlled by an outside source, but instead from an internal computer.
Not to be confused with Cyborgs, which are biological creatures with artificial components instead of fully robotic.
Example images here"
Cyborg
- This one's mostly good, but I think that it needs to implement a good definition, and a lot of tag cleaning up.
- Last two points of the android suggestions above should also be added here. Check androids above.
Suggested new wiki definition:
"A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical, or robotic) parts.
Not to be confused with Androids, which are fully artificial creatures, instead of a combination of biological and artifical parts.
Example images here"
Robot
- This wiki is needlessly wordy. It should be trimmed down and better formatted and generally cleaned up in it's presentation. Too many little fixes to name.
- Android should be implicated to robot
- The last sentence of the wiki states: "Another common characteristic is that, by its appearance or movements, a robot often conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own." I disagree with this sentence, both with the word's actual definition, and the rest of the wiki. How does a nano bot display intent? How does this robot display even an iota of agency? No, I think that this line should be reserved for androids.
- The robot tag is chock-full of creatures that are very, very human looking. Shouldn't they be androids? Where do we draw the line between an android and a robot?
- I propose that the robot tag should be used for mechanical things/creatures that are not trying to emulate human physiology. Like post #257117 is clearly a robot, but not an android, as is (warning, pony gore) post #394556, though it could be argued that the pony flesh is still living and is therefore a cyborg... looks dead to me though Jim.
- The robot tag could be what catches all the non-human creature analogue robots.
- However, I also think that the robot tag should be used for things that might look vaguely human in form, but far more robot than man. Like post #504142... or is that a mech? See next section.
- Wiki should outline above sub-points.
This one is going to require a lot of manual cleaning up I think.
Suggested new wiki definition:
"A robot is an intelligent mechanical agent which can either perform tasks on its own, or with guidance. In practice, a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine gided by a computer.
Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and come in three basic types
Worker robots, which are often used for manual labor that is too dangerous or exact for biological laborers. Examples include be industrial robots or the Boston Dynamics "Big Dog."
Helper robots, which are generally tools used to aid skilled professionals or carry out very specific tasks that couldn't be achieved any other way. Examples would include nano-bots and robotic surgery tables.
Creature Analog robots, the kind most likely to grace the pages of e6. These robots are made for various reasons, but generally resemble natural creatures in some small way. They are not androids, because they're not designed with the sole function of being a human like "living" creature, they are generally designed with other functions in mind, and do not have a humanoid form.
Example images here."
Mech
*Mech should implicate robot. I can't find any examples on e6 where this is not the case.
- Mecha aliased to Mech, since they're the same thing
- Currently no wiki. I think that it should state something like this: (taken mostly from urban dictionary)
" A Mech is a large, mobile, tank like robot that usually walks on 2 legs, though there are some variations that walk on 4 or even 6 legs, and even fewer are simply a humanoid upper torso mounted on tank treads. Most Mechs tower over humans, often standing about 60 feet tall but are always at least twice their pilot's height. They are also controlled by a human pilot, or by remote. Self aware, non-piloted mechs are actually just large androids. Mechs are generally vehicles of war, armed with weapons and heavily armored. The military is no doubt working on a prototype Mech as I type this."
Also, I very well may have missed some important tags related to robots and such. If I did, please let me know!
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