Words that also mean robot or cyborg + derogatory words for robots

ROBOT

Machine

Humanoid robot

Humanoid

Android

Droid

Cybernetic person

Automatic computing system

Mechanical worker

Mechanical man

Metal Man

Artificial human

Artificial life

Drone


CYBORG

Cybernetic-organic system

Cybernetic organism

Robotic-organic system

Machine-organic interface/system

Computer brain

Cybernetic brain

Half human, half machine

I realize I might be referencing to the movie I, Robot often in this blog, but this film brings up a lot of issues to talk about in terms of what Daniel Dinello’s book Technophobia! introduces in its pages so far.  In the film I, Robot, Detective Spooner called Sonny a “canner,” and this reflects his prejudice against the robots. The Spooner character wouldn’t use that word if he didn’t feel hatred towards them.  And Sonny takes offense to the word “canner” and corrects Spooner by saying his name is Sonny.

In Asimov’s short story “Lost Little Robot,” the physicist Gerald Black had told a robot to “go lose [him]self,” and eventually spilled it out to Dr. Susan Calvin that he called it a number of derogatory names before telling it to go lose itself.  The order from this human being, in addition to the harmful names he had called him, resulted in the robot’s unusual behavior.