the great debate

[jwgh]

[Poll #925685]

Defend your position in the comments!

(Tik-Tok's a robot, obviously. But what happens if he's sprinkled with the Powder of Life?)

Important Breaking News: Project Gutenberg has 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' available for free onliine, which allowed me to find this possibly relevant excerpt:

"Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world."
"Have you any?" inquired the Scarecrow.
"No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman. "But once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart."

Comments

[jwgh]

Hmm. Tik-Tok's all analog, as far as I can tell. Would you say he's not a robot? (Baum himself didn't use the term, but the word 'robot' wasn't invented until 1920, while Tik-Tok was introduced in 1907, so that doesn't signify one way or another.)

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

Tough call. I think for me, at least, a 'robot' needs electrical circuits of some sort, and needs to be mechanical, and needs to have some sort of Turing-complete programming applied to it. :-) Tik-Tok is mechanical, yes, but how does he know how to speak and stuff? I guess if he's got a complete neural system (implying 'electrical' circuitry the way that humans also have electrical circuitry), then he'd meet the definition of robot. But just because he's made of metal and talks doesn't necessarily make him a robot. Maybe an android? I dunno!