#androgynoid

[rjalker]

Edit June 26 2025: Post fucking canceled everyone, she admitted in 2019 that Murderbot is, in fact, a cyborg. So that's what she gets for confusing everyone *on purpose*. So ignore all the parts where I say Murderbot's not a cyborg. Martha Wells is just genuinely bad at writing and decided to confused everyone on purpose because she thinks that's the same thing as being clever.

Original post:

"Since Martha Wells decided to confuse everyone, I made a chart.

Feel free to save and share this chart wherever you want, I don't need credit.

[ID: A chart showing the differences between an android and a cyborg.

The Left side is pale blue, and is labeled, "Android", with the explanation: "A robot or other artificial creation designed to mimic the appearance of a human. Can be made of mechanical parts, synthetic, or a mix of the two."

Below is a picture of Nick Valentine, from Fallout 4. Nick is an android with grey skin that is damaged in some sections, showing the mechanical parts of his skull and part of his neck. His eyes glow yellow.

More text beneath the image of Nick reads "Other notable androids in popular fiction…"

And lists: "Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries book series, Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation show, C3PO, from Star Wars."

The right side of the chart is pale orange, and titled, "Cyborg", with the explanation: "Any biological organism given cybernetic enhancenements, usually in the form of prosthetic limbs, but can include synthetic organs or sensory aids. Literally cybernetic + oragnism", with "CYB" in cybernetic, and "org" in organism in all caps, underlined, and purple for emphasis.

Below this is a picture of Cyborg, or Victor Stone, from the DC Comics. Cyborg is a Black man with many parts of his body, including half his face, replaced by cybernetic prosthetics of blue and grey metal.

Below him is a list: "Other notable cyborgs in popular fiction…" listing, "Luke and Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars, Tony Stark and Bucky Barnes from the MCU, the Cybermen from Doctor Who, and the Borg from Star Trek", with "(literally, their name is just 'cyborg' without the cy)" in parenthesis for the Borg.

End ID.]

Murderbot is an android, specifically an androgynoid since it's designed to look like a genderless human. It would only be a cyborg if it started out fully human and was then later given mechanical parts. It was created from the getgo as a combination of mechanical parts, cloned human tissue, and artificial intelligence. It's not a cyborg, it's an androgynoid.

Gurathin is a cyborg, because he is a human who was then augmented using technology.

In general, cyborgs are born. Androids are created.

Anything, including an alien or an animal can be a cyborg. Anything can also be an android, but the term android specifically means "robot designed to look like a man" as in a male, not just a general human, hence why Murderbot's an androgynoid. A robot designed to look specifically like a woman would be a gynoid, and so on and so forth. There are pretty much infinite options here.

(Edit 5/9/23: I created the term "anthroid" as a catchall term for any robot designed to look like a human, without having to specify gender each time. Go. Be free from male default language.)

So if you really wanted to do good worldbuilding for an alien species, they'd have their own specific term for robots they build to look like themselves.

a robot designed to look like a spider, for an example, could be called an arachnoid. You may also notice the similarity to the word "humanoid".

Anthroid = robot (or other artificial construct if your universe has magic) that is humanoid. Android = robot designed to look like a human man. Gynoid = robot designed to look like a human woman.

Cyborg = any biological organism given any mechanical enhancements or augmentations. Yes, including something as "not dramatic enough" as a prosthetic eye with a high tech camera in it.

(The Daleks and also Geordi la Forge are also cyborgs, I knew I was forgetting obvious examples)"

Edit June 26 2025: anyways. Martha Wells confused everyone on purpose despite her knowing that Murderbot was actually a cyborg and not an anthroid because if we were all clear on the fact that Murderbot and the rest of them are cyborgs, we'd be thinking that much more criticially about how horrifically she the author is handling everything about this series.

So now all the exorsexism, transmisia, racism, biological essentialism, ableism? Yeah it's all exponentially worse and there's no salvaging anything here unless she magically gains morals before the next book gets published, and that's literally not going to happen.

[rjalker]

[ID: Ten circular pins against transparent backgrounds, with the trans pride flag on it, with stripes of blue, pink, white, pink, and blue.

Each design has two near check boxes that read "Male" and "Female", which have been crossed out, and a crooked checkbox with a line, and text in a different font so that it looks like it has been hand-written in, each reading a different answer.

The pins read, in order:

Abomination, ace, achillean, alien, androgynoid, android, aro, aroace, ask me tomorrow, and autistic.

End ID.]

Feel free to save these to your computer or phone, to use as icons, headers, moodboards, ect.

You can also feel free to print them out and make them into pins or other designs yourself, as long as you aren't selling them for a profit or claiming you created the design.

Please feel free to request more options!

link to post 1 (You are here) link to post 2 link to post 3 link to post 4 link to post 5 link to post 6 link to post 7 link to post 8 link to post 9 This is post 10

----------

These are no longer available on Redbubble since they’re just straight up stealing from artists, but you are encouraged to download these to use as icons, headers, moodboards, whatever you want :)

[rjalker]

also I did make an androgynoid/gynandroid pride flag back in May, with the colors based on my one pretty robot OC

I don't remember if I posted this one yet so here it is possibly again.

if you identify as an androgynoid or gynandroid (A robot designed to look like neither a man nor a woman) you can use this pride flag! It's intended to be inclusive of gender identity and species identity alike.

It's public domain, meaning anyone can use it for anything they want, no permission or credit needed, though I do ask that you include an image description wherever possible, and direct people to a blank version of the flag if they ask!

Here's the web archive page for the flags.

"https://archive.org/details/androgynoid-flag"

The wider one is intended to fit a tumblr blog, but it depends on your blog theme so you'll have to mess with it to get it to fit.

[ID: Two versions of a pride flag. The first is shaped like a square, the second is shaped like a wide rectangle. The flag has nine horizontal stripes of: berry red, black, dark blue-grey, blue-grey, pale ice blue, blue-grey, dark blue-grey, black, and berry red. End ID.]

[rjalker]

[ID: Two pictures of a digital drawing of Murderbot from the Murderbot diaries, standing from the chest upwards in front of different pride flags. Murderbot is wearing grey armour that covers its whole body, with a helmet with a tinted visor hiding its face.

The pride flags are, in order from left to right and top to bottom:

Aliagender, with stripes of green dark purple, and dark orange.

Androgyne, with stripes of light blue, teal, dark purple, gold, dark purple, red-purple, and dark pink.

Androgynoid, with stripes of berry red, black, dark grey purple, grey purple, pale blue, grey purple, dark grey purple, black, and berry red.

Aphorian, with stripes of dark red-purple, violet, dark turquoise, pale yellow, dark turquoise, violet, and dark red-purple.

Aroace agender, with stripes of dark green, light green, white, light green, white, light purple, and dark purple.

Aroace, with stripes of dark green, light green, white, grey, black, grey, white, light purple, and dark purple.

Aspec, with stripes of green, yellow, cream, blue, and purple.

Autigender, with stripes of pastel purple, cyan green, orange, and red.

Ectopronouns, with stripes of purple, blue, white, green, and yellow.

Genderqueer, with stripes of purple, white, and green.

touch averse it/its, with stripes of gold, orange, black, grey-blue, and grey-green.

simplified it/its, with stripes of pale yellow, green, and blue.

Matrix-gender, with stripes of black, dark green, green, light green, green, dark green, and black.

Maverique, with stripes of gold, white, and orange.

MOGAI, with stripes of cyan, teal, green, yellow, purple, and brown.

Neurodivergent, with stripes of pale yellow, dark orange, black, dark green, black, dark orange, and pale yellow.

Neutrois, with stripes of white, green, and black.

Nonhuman, with stripes of yellow,, green, purple, red, and brown.

Nonplatonic, with stripes of black, dark grey, grey, white, pale blue, and sky blue.

Outherine, with stripes of grey, blue-green, green, yellow, pale orange, orange, red, and very dark red.

Pride, with stripes of pale purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, green blue, dark blue, and dark purple.

The progress pride flag, the same as above, but with triangle shaped stripes of white, pink, blue, brown, and black on the side.

Solitaremit, with stripes of pale grey, gold, orange, dark red, black, and dark red-purple.

Soulless, with stripes of cyan, purple, dark blue, navy blue, dark blue, purple, and cyan.

The answer is no, with stripes of black, dark grey, light grey, white, light orange, and dark orange.

Touch averse, with stripes of dark orange, dark red, black, dark red, and dark orange.

Trans, with stripes of blue, pink, white, pink, and blue.

Transnonbinary, with stripes of purple, black, blue, pink, yellow, white, yellow, pink, blue, black, and purple.

Transxeno, with stripes of very dark magenta, dark magenta, dark orange, dark gold, dark orange, dark magenta, and very dark magenta.

Unattracted, with stripes of green, yellow, white, pale pink, blue, and purple.

End ID.]

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

You can use these icons as long as:

You do not misgender Murderbot or any other character in this series who uses it/its pronouns or any other neopronouns, and correct others when they do

you do not ship Murderbot with anyone. No, not even queerplatonically. Murderbot is explicitly disgusted by the idea of being in any kind of Relationship, including platonic.

You do not whitewash Murderbot or any other character in this series. Do not fucking draw Dr. Gurathin as a literal fucking Nazi ideal, or support those who do.

You do not erase the fact that Murderbot is touch averse.

you direct people to the rest if they ask where you got it.

The androgyne pride flag design is by @mogai-vexillology! I adjusted the colors on this version so it wouldn’t be as eye-straining.

[rjalker]

If you build a scarecrow and enchant it to scare birds away that's also an anthroid / android / gynoid / androgynoid / vexoid.

[ID: A five panel comic of a scarecrow.

The first shows the scarecrow looking forward at the camera with a smile. It is made up of two long poles in a cross shape, with a large shirt and a hat tilted back.

The next shows the scarecrow with a small exclamation mark next to its head as it looks over at the bird that is landing on its arm.

The bird is still in the middle of landing when the scarecrow says, "Boo" while the bird looks over at it in shock.

The scarecrow then watches the bird fly away with a smile.

Then it closes its eyes, pleased with itself, with an arrow pointed at it that reads, "Getting a good grade in bird-scaring away". End ID.]

[rjalker]

Android/Gynoid/Androgynoid/ect = robot designed to look like an organic person (usually a human, but this would also apply to robots created by other species)

Examples:

Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries

Nick Valentine and synths from Fallout 4

Cylons from Battlestar Galactica (excluding the Raiders)

Terminators from The Terminator movies

C3PO from Star Wars

ect.

Cyborg = organic person augmented with computer/mechanical/cybernetic/magical parts. This includes but /is not limited to/ prosthetic limbs. (I am including magic here because scifi and fantasy are pretty much the same thing, okay? okay.)

Examples:

Cyborg from Teen Titans / I guess the DC universe in general idk,

whatshisface from Marvel with the super scifi robot arm

Tony Stark from Marvel

Anakin and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars

the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation

the Grox from Spore (who are literally just a reference to the Borg)

John Crichton from Farscape assuming I'm remembering the one episode correctly.

uh apparently the Courier from Fallout: New Vegas if you pick it for some quest??

A bunch of random NPCs in The Clockwork City in The Elder Scrolls Online

The ancillaries(?) from The Imperial Radch series.

[fiathefae]

Tbh I don't have breakdowns, I just shut down unexpectedly and have to run in Safe Mode for a while until I can do a hard reboot.

[psychonautsimagines]

Imagine Loboto practicing talking to a debrained Bobby, awkwardly trying to come up with something to tell his estranged son. Imagine him studying Bobby’s face because it’s the first time he’s seen him since he was a toddler. Imagine him pretending that they have a normal father/son relationship and watching TV with his brainless body.

Submitted by androgynoid!