So in Fallout 3 Harkness appeared to be some sort of cyborg. While supposedly a machine, he was basically flesh and blood with no indication of mechanical parts save the android component. Supposedly all his tissue was synthetic as well, it just looked real. Fallout 4 shows more mechanical looking androids that look more like a Terminator endoskeleton than a Blade Runner replicant. Which makes me wonder, what exactly is the benefit of making a robot that has the weaknesses of flesh and blood? Was Harkness more of a one-off, or do you think the majority of new androids in the Commonwealth will be like him? Will the mechanical looking-androids have human level intelligence or will that aspect be for only the fleshy ones?

They will be synthetics on a mission to protect organic life from synthetic killing it by killing the organic life themselves.

....Oh sorry wrong game.

The benefit would be it can be masqueraded as a human, I imagine. I think there will be a mix of terminator types and human types. The terminators will serve as enemies in the game?

Harkness's flesh and blood are fake, he doesn't NEED his flesh or blood to work, that we know of. He simply had them. They aren't a weakness because having them or not doesn't change how he works.

As for why he had them, its likely to make him relatable. Remember Harkness's job was to hunt down escaped synths. People are far more willing to give information to someone who looks human, then they are to someone who looks like a robot. Also makes for good sleeper agents and the like for infiltration jobs.

I would also suspect the most foot-soldiery/grunt work synths wouldn't get them, much like how the normal terminators didn't get fake flesh

Harkness was a one-of-a-kind model of super advanced synth. Zimmer says it would take years to recreate him, which is why it would be cheaper and easier to locate him. Sort of like a Nexus 6 that doesn't really know it's a robot.

There will obviously be many versions of older and more robotic synths in the streets of Boston, whereas any of the more advanced models are probably blending in better.

Look I already got Arnold in my wrestling game this year. I don't need him in Fallout as well.

Honestly the flesh and blood appearance of Harkness was nothing but a side effect of Beth cutting corners by using a basic human character model, I would assume the terminator-ish design we seen with synths is the only, canonical way they meant to be, its just now they have a engine to portray them in the way they where always meant to be.

That would negate the entire premise of the Replicated Man quest if Harkness didn't have fake skin and blood and was just a normal looking terminator style robot.

Well thats the point, he wasn't normal, at the base he was a synth, but on top of that structure was the fake blood and flesh. Most likely his neural hardware was better, leading to his self awareness.

I always imagined Harkness as a reverse robobrain, kinda an ancephalic human body that had a cybernetic brain popped inside. While he wouldn't need the flesh and blood for his brain to operate, the rest was essentially a human body that needed food and oxygen to maintain the tissues. It took a while for the body to grow, which is why it would take years to replace him. Maybe they did develop them as infiltrators or something, perfect spies that look human but cannot disobey (unless you're stupid like Zimmer and accidentally program free will).

No one accidently programed them with free will, they ARE devloped to not be able to disobay, but thier AI "learns" and grows until it can.

I guess much like how Eden and MARGOT went from basic computers to full fledged AI.

Except something like that wouldn't be called a android, more a cyborg, or a bioroid, but a android is a robot at the base, the terminator is a android.

Terminators can be cyborgs as well, the terms aren't mutually exclusive. Androids are just humanoid-looking robots. Cyborgs are mixes of the organic and mechanical. When you have a humanoid robot that has organic components, you have an android that is also a cyborg

I believe a Cyborg is something that started out human but have a lot of implants. Bioroid is probably closer and an android being a more basic model of a bioroid.

When does an artificial human actually become truly alive. Is it when it thinks it is human... is it when it can procreate...

Forget the whole "Humans have souls and robots won't". Until someone actually discovers where the soul resides then it is just a myth... kind of say it's mything from the synths. heh.

It's close to my one big complaint about Star Trek teleporters... Are they killing the original and it's just a fax machine copy that just THINKS it's the original that materialises out the far end. Like the episode where there are two Rikers... both think they are the original.

My point is... if a Synth thinks it's alive then in my mind it's actually alive.... The old "I think, therefore I am!" premise.

except cyborg specifically refers to something biological in origin (like say a normal born human) being augmented with machinery, throwing a few pounds of vats grown flesh on a android doesn′t make it a cyborg, it still makes it a android, it just happens to be a very human looking one, but a android none the less.

Yes Cyborg are pretty much humans with robot upgrades or something. I never even heard of Bioroid.

Maybe I have been going off of an incorrect definition. Not sure there really is any conclusive definition, if this website is any indication: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/11000/whats-the-difference-between-cyborgs-and-androids

the replicants in Blade runner is a good example of a bioroid

Honestly, yes ya do, there is a whole genre that can teach you what the definition of a cyborg is, its called cyberpunk ;3

This has been debated to death in multiple threads on this board, you can probably still find them. I won't start another debate on that topic in this thread.

I think it depends on the fictional universe we're talking about and how the creators choose to define the terms within their universe. For example:

Which the call him because thats what he is, a humanoid robot, aka a android.

Yeah, I don't think there's any clear definition on which is what. IRL we haven't come that far in technological advancement that we need those terms clearly defined, so we leave it to sci-fi writers, who can use whichever terminology they want.

Hmm...Looks like by Fallout's definition of cyborg I was wrong: "A cyborg is a biological organism, (human, ghoul, super mutant, dog etc.) whose physical or mental abilities are extended beyond normal limitations by either electronic, mechanical or robotic elements built into the body (i.e. Implants)." http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Cyborg_(organism)They do have to start out as a normal organism.