From: dsc@gemini.tmc.edu (Doug S. Caprette Bldg. 28 W191 x3892)
Subject: Re: Computers or physical? (was Re: Is not! Is too! Is not! Is too!)
Summary: Sometimes words can have two meanings
Organization: NASA GSFC CDP VLBI
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 22:06:52 GMT

In article <5992@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at> mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner) writes:
>From article <1992Oct5.214400.8296@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, by dsc@gemini.tmc.edu (Doug S. Caprette Bldg. 28 W191 x3892):
>[discussion about how Roy Batty is not a robot]
>
>> Within SF, android has traditionally been defined as a 'synthetic human'.
>
>While I agree completely with the rest of your posting, I would like
>to point out that traditionally, android simply means "artificial
>human-shaped being", i.e., humanoid-shaped robots DO fit the
>definition.  
>

Well, perhaps what we really disagree on is the definition of 'traditional'.
In the all the literature I read prior to the Old Star Trek, 'android' meant
a flesh and blood, or biological, but synthetic or manufactured human.  For 
that matter, I haven't read anything since in which androids were electro-
mechanical. 

If by traditional you include post-Old Star Trek Sci Fi, and/or popular 
dictionaries (e.g. Webster's or Oxford) then you are right.  Personally
I think we are each right, but in different contexts.  The use of the term
android for a robot which appears human on the outside is a more recent 
developement.  It may actually be a return to the term that was in usage
prior to "RUR" which brought the word robot (Czech for 'worker') into the
English language.  For additional confusion recall that in "Star Wars" the 
robots, some of whom only remotely resemble humans, were referred to as
'droids--clearly a perversion of 'android.'

Which context is correct for BR is irrelevent since the term isn't used there.
Perhaps the wirter/director had too many argumants over what it meant!
It is unfortunate that Deckard refers to the replicants as being 'like
any other machine'.  This probably contributes to the confusion.

I still recall my disapointment at the (mis)use of the term android upon
seeing the Old StarTrek episodes "What Are Little Girl's Made of", "I, Mud" 
and "(something else)", for the first time. 

>                 The androids in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are
>mechanical/electronic. 

Absolutely not true.  Recall that in DADOES an android after being killed
was sent for *AUTOPSY*, and a rather esoteric chemical test was required to 
verify that it was an android rather than a human.  This would hardly have
been necessary if they were electromechanical.  The sheep, on the other hand,
was electromechanical.  See also Isacc Asimov's "Caves of Steel".  This novel 
and it's sequel feature a robot, which is so human like it is mistaken for 
human.  And, it is clearly referred to as a robot.  

>                                 The androids in Alien/Aliens also fit this 
>category (personally, what annoyed me about Star Trek's Data was what
>a cartoon android he is compared to Ash and Bishop).
>

Yes they do, they are also post-Old Star Trek.  Note the earlier posting
indicating that in "Alien" the word 'android' was sloppily redubbed over the
word 'robot'.

>
>(If your definition of "synthetic human" includes this, then I agree
>with you anyway. :-)
>

No, it doesn't. However, I am one of those old farts who also doesn't like
that newfangled pronounciation of 'kilometer' that Carl Sagan popularized
either.

--
dsc@gemini.gsfc.nasa.gov  
 |  Regards,         |   Hughes STX                |    Code 926.9 GSFC        |
 |  Doug Caprette    |   Lanham, Maryland          |    Greenbelt, MD  20771   |
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it
 boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have 
 similar opinions of their works..." -- JRR Tolkien

 P.S.  Yes, I'm also one of those snobs who distinguishes between SF, and
 Sci Fi.
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