Editing Android (robot) (section)

==Terminology==
[[File:Android Times Tue Dec 22 1795.jpg|thumb|Early example of the term ''androides'' used to describe human-like mechanical devices, ''[[London Times]]'', 22 December 1795]]
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' traces the earliest use (as "Androides") to [[Ephraim Chambers]]' 1728 ''[[Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences|Cyclopaedia]],'' in reference to an [[automaton]] that St. [[Albertus Magnus]] allegedly created.<ref name="Stableford2006" /><ref>''OED'' at "android" citing Ephraim Chambers, ''Cyclopædia; or, a universal dictionary of arts and sciences.'' 1728.</ref> By the late 1700s, "androides", elaborate mechanical devices resembling humans performing human activities, were displayed in exhibit halls.<ref>{{cite news |title=At the Mechanical Theater |work=[[London Times]] |date=22 December 1795}}</ref>
The term "android" appears in US patents as early as 1863 in reference to miniature human-like toy automatons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/patents?id=QhIAAAAAEBAJ|title=U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patent# 40891, ''Toy Automation''|publisher=[[Google Patents]]|access-date=7 January 2007}}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The term ''android'' was used in a more modern sense by the French author [[Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam]] in his work ''[[The Future Eve|Tomorrow's Eve]]'' (1886), featuring an artificial humanoid robot named Hadaly.<ref name="Stableford2006" /> The term made an impact into English [[pulp science fiction]] starting from [[Jack Williamson]]'s ''[[The Cometeers]]'' (1936) and the distinction between mechanical robots and fleshy androids was popularized by [[Edmond Hamilton]]'s [[Captain Future]] stories (1940–1944).<ref name="Stableford2006" />

Although [[Karel Čapek]]'s robots in ''[[R.U.R.|R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)]]'' (1921)—the play that introduced the word ''[[robot]]'' to the world—were organic artificial humans, the word "robot" has come to primarily refer to mechanical humans, animals, and other beings.<ref name="Stableford2006"/> The term "android" can mean either one of these,<ref name="Stableford2006"/> while a [[cyborg]] ("cybernetic organism" or "bionic man") would be a creature that is a combination of organic and mechanical parts.

The term "[[droid (Star Wars)|droid]]", popularized by [[George Lucas]] in the original ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' film and now used widely within science fiction, originated as an abridgment of "android", but has been used by Lucas and others to mean any robot, including distinctly non-human form machines like [[R2-D2]]. The word "android" was used in ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "[[What Are Little Girls Made Of?]]" The abbreviation "andy", coined as a [[pejorative]] by writer [[Philip K. Dick]] in his novel ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]'', has seen some further usage, such as within the TV series ''[[Total Recall 2070]]''.<ref name="TR2070">{{Cite episode|title=Rough Whimper of Insanity |url=http://www.fancast.com/tv/Total-Recall-2070/10604/full-episodes |series=Total Recall 2070 |series-link=Total Recall 2070 |credits=Levin, Drew S. (exec. prod.) |network=[[Channel Zero Inc.|Channel Zero]] |station=[[CHCH-TV]] |location=Toronto |airdate=23 February 1999 |season=1 |number=7 |minutes=2:10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205165831/http://www.fancast.com/tv/Total-Recall-2070/10604/full-episodes |archive-date=5 February 2010 }}</ref>

While the term "android" is used in reference to human-looking robots in general (not necessarily male-looking humanoid robots), a robot with a female appearance can also be referred to as a ''[[gynoid]]''. Besides one can refer to robots without alluding to their sexual appearance by calling them ''anthrobots'' (a portmanteau of anthrōpos and robot; see ''[[anthrobotics]]'') or ''anthropoids'' (short for anthropoid robots; the term ''humanoids'' is not appropriate because it is already commonly used to refer to human-like organic species in the context of science fiction, futurism and speculative astrobiology).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anthrobotics: Where The Human Ends and the Robot Begins |url=https://futurism.com/anthrobotics-where-the-human-ends-and-the-robot-begins |access-date=2022-02-19 |website=Futurism|date=7 March 2017 }}</ref>

Authors have used the term ''android'' in more diverse ways than ''[[robot]]'' or ''[[cyborg]]''. In some fictional works, the difference between a robot and android is only superficial, with androids being made to look like humans on the outside but with robot-like internal mechanics.<ref name="Stableford2006"/> In other stories, authors have used the word "android" to mean a wholly organic, yet artificial, creation.<ref name="Stableford2006"/> Other fictional depictions of androids fall somewhere in between.<ref name="Stableford2006"/>

Eric G. Wilson, who defines an android as a "synthetic human being", distinguishes between three types of android, based on their body's composition:
* the mummy type – made of "dead things" or "stiff, inanimate, natural material", such as mummies, puppets, dolls and statues
* the golem type – made from flexible, possibly organic material, including golems and homunculi
* the automaton type – made from a mix of dead and living parts, including automatons and robots<ref name="Wilson2006"/>

Although human morphology is not necessarily the ideal form for working robots, the fascination in developing robots that can mimic it can be found historically in the assimilation of two concepts: ''[[Simulacrum|simulacra]]'' (devices that exhibit likeness) and ''[[Automata theory|automata]]'' (devices that have independence).