An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human, especially one with a body having a flesh-like resemblance. Androids are programmed with different purposes, such as educating, gardening, pets or cleaning. Iko is the main example of an android.
Androids are only the exterior that holds the chip where the machine's information is stored; if the chip is taken out, the exterior becomes relatively useless. A chip is not tied exclusively to a single android body and can be placed in different ones, therefore, as long as the chip is not damaged, even if the body that formerly housed it is destroyed, it can still be salvaged.
Types of androids
Escort-droid
Escort droids are most often used as companions, and often resemble humans more than med or household droids.
Med-droid
Med-droids are used to perform basic medical techniques, such as blood-testing and testing for diseases. They are painted with a single red cross across the front of the android. In Cinder, several med-droids were programmed to remove identity chips from those who have died of letumosis, and in Scarlet, it was revealed that these droids were programmed by the Lunars in order to give identity chips to their special operatives.
Household droid
Household droids are droids programmed to do simple household tasks, such as cleaning.
Known androids
Trivia
- The androids shown in The Lunar Chronicles technically are not true androids, as most of the ones shown in the series do not bear resemblance to humans. However, Marissa Meyer provided the following explanation as to why this was so:
- "In the fake history of my fictional world, the first working robots available to the masses were true androids, with humanoid features. However, as the novelty wore off, robot manufacturers realized that the humanoid model was inefficient and not as useful as simpler, more compact body styles. So they started redesigning the robots and, over time, the common mass-produced robots became the robots you see in the books—treads and all. However, the term android was too ingrained in the language at that point, so the terminology stayed."
- ―Marissa Meyer, as shown on her website FAQ[1]