The fact that transformers don't reproduce like biological creatures might be good or might be bad depending on your viewpoint. Prototypes are far more easier and logicial choice. Build another robot which is easier to change allliance if you are decepticon.Autobots don't force others to join them like religious fantanics.
They can't have family or they have a little something from their love with each other which might be a good thing. For autobot would be bad but for the decepticons,it might be a good idea not to having any. It is hard for warriors to carry around anunwanted brat or a wanted one. It would be hard on both brat and parent/s. I would assume decepticon brats are so cute and cuddly as autobot would or earth one. A clear sign of weakness in decepticons' eyes. They would have waste time training or trying to make them strong.It is so easier just to program toughness. It also view as a sign in parents.

I imagine sex for them is the creation of the Spark. They combine their Sparks and then I guess some leftover bits of their Sparks join together. I guess what I'm saying is: Their Sparks are Mitotic, they release half of a Spark and then heal their Spark. The half joins with the other half when they're having sex. And then they put the Spark in a new body.

Transformers don't grow. They're often "born" as fully mature adults. Some of them go through periods of emotional immaturity and mature with more experience... but they don't actually mature physically. Transformers are essentially immortal (unless they are slain, they pretty much don't die) and as such don't have a huge driving need for constant reproduction. They artificially (and asexually) reproduce themselves because of millenia of warfare.



The Transformers have never sexually reproduced (and mitosis is an asexual form of reproduction anyway). Even when the ancient Transformers were able to reproduce mitotically, it was always asexual, more similar to budding. When reproducing, another Transformer would emerge from the body of the parent and bud off to become a new individual Transformer offspring. Of course, the Transformers' "fall from grace" eradicated this ability with their 'collective sins' manifesting itself into the Swarm, which would later - thanks to intervention from G2 Optimus Prime and the Matrix - evolve into becoming the Vok.

The ancient Transformers used to asexually reproduce via mitotic budding


The impurity of the Transformers race made them lose their reproductive ability and gave birth to The Swarm


The Swarm eventually evolved to become the Vok

As the Vok's Emissary, Tigerhawk possessed elemental powers

Did the Swarm really become the Vok?

Well one BW writter intended it, the other didn't agree on it.


Its not offical, and isn't in any mainstream Transformers Canon that I'm aware of (maybe the 3H Botcon Comics... but they literally took Tarantulas to be created by Unicron... so yeah)

Well in "Nemesis," Megatron called Tarantulas the Spawn of Unicron.

"Spawn of Unicron" could very well just be an insult in the Transformers world. I'm not really sure if any official Transformers works of canon have ever mentioned Tarantulas as the spawn of Unicron.

Larry DiTillio said that the Vok were meant to an evolution of the Swarm and that Tripredacus and Tarantulas were meant to be servants of Unicron. Bob Forward was a bit hesitant on the Swarm history with the Vok in the beginning because he felt that it might be boxing themselves in with where they could go in terms of developing the Vok story arc, but since the series got canceled his entire argument became a moot issue and I believe that DiTillio's intentions for the Vok, Tripredacus et al have since been retconned into official canon.

Come on X-BoB, back me up here!

X-Bob was banned a few months ago, GP. Sad to say... to a point.

And, upon doing some un-intended research, couldn't the Vox be related to the mysterious "It"? Creepy, skull-like floating head, anyone?

these are just my thoughts on the matter people.

i figure when it comes to cybertronian spark reproductio in general , that if they can reproduce in a true asimiler manner to we humans,that in the case of an opposite sex pairing the 2 would be parents simply share a mutual out of body experience with one another.

one in which the spark of each cybertronian leaves its body and for a time meld together to become a simgle amalgamated larger spark as the 2 sparks in their amalgamated larger spark form cross exchange genetic blueprints with eachother.

eventually the amalgamated spark seperates into the 2 original sparks seperate into fullsized sparks and a smaller newborn spark as well

duringthe whole out of body experience though the body of each parent to be sheds mass on a celluler level with this mass then enveloping the newborn spark and eventaully solidifying into a physical body for the newborn spark to inhabit

the result is that the body of the newborn cybertronian is one that is an enhanced mix of its parents bodily schematics


that people, is my besat guess on the matter.

Transformers are created in 2 main stages...

Stage 1: a physical body is pre-constructed - NEVER via sexual fusion.
Stage 2: life essence (laser core, spark etc) is implanted into the body.

Life essences come from different sources depending on the canonical source, e.g.: Matrix, All Spark Cube etc.
And life essences themselves are also NEVER created sexually.

The idea of the Spark and the Matrix is similar to the idea of the cosmic mother node found in Vedic religions (e.g.: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc), although their retention of individuality is more similar to the Abrahamic religions. But the Spark's origin and relationship with the Matrix/AllSpark is similar to the religious concepts found in Vedic religions.

Or "The Guf" aka "Guf ha-Briyot", as described in Jewish mysticism, supposedly the source of human souls. According to the belief, the Messiah won't come until the Guf is empty. A movie was actually made about this concept, with Demi Moore, called "The Seventh Sign".

So basically, what you're saying here is that TF's create new TF's because the older ones keep on dying. In other words, they create new ones just to fight in their war and eventually die themselves?

Pretty much. Emirate Xaaron is the sole survivor of the Autobot Council of Elders and possibly the only one left of his generation because the others were all killed during the war - in the case of the Autobot Council, all executed by the Decepticon forces led by Trannis.

High Councillor Traachon was the leader of the Autobot Council of Elders and was ultimately executed by Decepticons along with all other Councillors except for Councillor Xaaron

Former Councillor Xaaron survived the fall of Iacon and later led the Autobot resistance on Cybertron as Emirate Xaaron where he founded special ops teams such as The Wreckers.

Xbob was banned? So that is why he is gone. Any idea why?

Anywhoo, tough to say how exactly Transformers are made. A body could easily be contructed and I imagine there are plenty of spark-less drones. Because that is the difficult part in creating a Transformer- the spark. Pretty much the only way the spark can be created is trough the Matrix.

In every known example, a Transformer has been created by having a constructed body with life/sentience then imbued into it.

e.g.:
+ Dinobots (cartoon) - bodies constructed and sentience then later programmed in
+ Jetfire (comics) - body constructed by Shockwave and life essence later imbued by the Matrix
+ Constructicons (comics) - same as Jetfire
+ Aerialbots (cartoon) - bodies pre-constructed as old Cybertronian vehicles which were then modified and had life imbued by Vector Sigma
+ Stunticons (cartoon) - bodies pre-constructed from stolen vehicles with life imbued by Vector Sigma
+ Technobots - bodies pre-constructed and imbued life by Grimlock
+ Omega Supreme (comics) - constructed and then given sentience by Autobots
+ Nokia-bot, Pepsi-bot, X-Box-bot, steering wheel-bot etc - bodies were pre-constructed machines/appliances which were imbued life by the AllSpark Cube

I never really could believe in the story that Transformers "reproduced" in any way. Still it's hard to explain every single Transformer being designed and built just a little different than anyone else. Unless they're all based on the same protoform and the individual characteristics are embued when the spark is installed.

Don't forget the Combaticon (cartoon) - Although I don't even know if they were constructed as/to be robots. SS dug them out, stole some bad sparks, put them in and wah-la. Not only did they turn into robots but they got new alt modes too. No way SS thought that up.

thats pritty much my stance

as for growing up well it could be a question of how thier made wheelie who is clearly a child could have been made with a blank slate while others had pre programed experiances

I thought Starscream dug the vehicles out, modified them to be Transformers, they got inside Blast-off, flew to Cybertron and then got the personailty chips. I honestly can't remember though, maybe I shuld look it up.

Guess I was wrong, he got the chips and installed them and everythign pretty much happened on their own. I guess it's a matter of the spark reconfiguring whatever tech is around to make a body.

The Combaticon origin in the G1 cartoon counts as pre-constructed - in a similar way as the Transformers on Earth were brought to life in the movie by the AllSpark (i.e.: the machines were instantly modified into Transformers when imbued with a Spark). Although the cartoon did it in a more ridiculous way... like how a Japanese Zero fighter morphed into a freakin' space shuttle... yeah right.


With Transformers maturity seems to be more relevant with mental maturity as opposed to physical maturity.

The saying "With age comes wisdom" is crock because there are plenty of really stupid and immature adults out there. A more accurate statement would be "with wisdom comes age."

I always feel sorry for teenagers who've come to the realisation that they've mentally outgrown their parents.

I completely agree with that GK. I tell those younger than me that just because people become adults doesn't mean they have more common sense or better use of brain power.

Indeed. The only reason why 18 is the age of adulthood is because that was the age that society deemed a man old enough to be conscripted and sent to fight wars to kill or be killed in exotic foreign lands.

We measure intelligence by dividing one's mental age by their physical age and multiplying it by 100 thus:

(mental age)/(physical age) x 100 = Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

An IQ of 100 is meant to be average which means that your mental age would have to be the same as your physical age. e.g.: if you are 15 years old then you need to have the mental age of a 15 year old to have the intelligence of a 15 year old like so...
IQ = 15/15 x 100 = 1 x 100 = 100

An intelligent person has an IQ substantially above that whereas a retard has an IQ substantially below that.

e.g.1 If a 15 year old is operating with the mental age of a 19 year old then his/her IQ would be...
18/15 x 100 = 1.2 x 100 = 120

e.g.2 If a 15 year old is operating with the mental age of an 11 year old then his/her IQ would be...
11/15 x 100 = 0.73 x 100 = 73

Regarding "intelligence age"... I'm not at all sure where you got those formulas, but they don't make any sense.

Intelligence quotient or IQ is intended to be a measure of the capacity of a person for logical though and puzzle solving. Like all aptitude tests, including the SAT, it is not intended to test knowledge at all, but the capacity of the person to think in new and different ways, solve complex problems, and do so under time and pressure.

An ideal set of IQ tests would develop a score that is the same from the moment the brain's logic centers become fully developed to the onset of senility.

Using your formula the way you seem to insinuate, my 148 IQ at age 18 would have dropped to 99 in the last nine years if I had not matured emotionally and socially in lock step. Yet I can tell you I'm still the same brilliant sociopathic hermit I always was.

So my "mental age" is 40-50? That makes no sense.

This is why it's much harder to measure IQ after adulthood - particularly once your brain finishes cognitive development (which was traditionally thought to be at age 15 but more modern research is now suggesting age 25).

A 9 year old who can read at someone four years older (13 year old) is considered to be very intelligent and possibly placed in some accelerated learning programme whereas conversely a 13 year old with a reading age of a 9 year old would have most educators and parents seriously worried and possibly placed in some remedial learning assistance programme.

This comparison means nothing amongst adults though. A 19 year old who reads at the age of a 23 year old or a 23 year old who reads at the age of a 19 year old?? There's no real difference between the reading ages of a 19 and 23 year old.



Here's an excerpt from my notes on special education (March 2000)

Reference: Howard, UNSW

-------

Intelligence

The number of children with special needs has increased partially because of advances in medicine. Children who would have otherwise died at an early age ('selected' out by nature, from a Darwinian viewpoint) are now living longer.

Gifted children exhibit symptoms such as reading and asking difficult questions at an early stage.

However, some children will not seem neither mentally deficient nor gifted until they begin school. This is because schooling is an unnatural environment. Hence, some children who may function normally at home will seem deficient at school. Often called "six-hour retardation" in some parts of the United States.

Most of these kids will leave school early and blend into society becoming fairly normal and productive members of society. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult as the number of unskill jobs decline as our society becomes more complex.

Many children will try to disguise their special needs. Schools are primarily designed to deal with average children and do not cope well with variation. Schools will try to homogenise students as much as possible. e.g.: streaming (organising classes within a grade by student intellect)

Consequently the slower students often get left behind whilst the brighter ones become bored.

People with a general deficit tend to be bad at doing everything and are considered to have special needs.
People with a general surplus tend to be good at everything and are considered to be gifted.

Texts on special education often do not cover the issue of intelligence very well.

Scientists have been studying intelligence for over a century. Intelligence is basically a function of the brain. The Ancient Greeks used to think intelligence came from the heart.
The brain doesn't function as a single unified thing. Rather, there is a whole set of largely independent units known as modules, consisting of several brain cells sitting together.
e.g.: modules that process visual information, audio information, social information, recognising faces etc.
For complex functions, several modules will loosely cooperate e.g.: music.
The brain modules have tacked onto each other throughout evolution... like a shack being renovated until it becomes a house.
Different modules develop at different rates. Some modules are functional at birth, whereas others develop throughout life through external stimulation.
Some modules work well in some people but not in others. This can be caused by genetics or brain damage.

The modular nature of the brain can be a cause of mental retardation. The modules form a very loose confederation, coined "the society of minds," by Marvin Minsky.

Most of our mental functioning is unconscious. The conscious mind is merely the tip of an iceberg. It is like the PR officer of a large corporation.
This is why people are sometimes unable to justify some of their actions.



However, there is a general intelligence.

Some brains seem to work faster and more efficiently than others. This equates with our perception of bright and dull people.

Our intelligence level determines our ability to think and work. Therefore it is a critical factor in school and life.
Intelligence also determines how far people will go in the education system. It determines how fast you can learn and what you can learn.
In all our endeavours, we all reach a point when something simply becomes too difficult to progress any further. There is a natural barrier.

Some people compensate by putting in lots of study.

IQ Testing

This is an imperfect, yet reasonable measure of intelligence. It also correlates reasonably well with grades and how well someone will perform in life.
However, not it is not the only factor to success. Other factors include motivation, connections, luck, personality and creativity.

Inate Talent

Some argue that this does not exist and that ability is only dependent on motivation.
However, others argue that the above statement defies common sense.

What is intelligence?
This is a very controversial question which dates back several thousand years.
Plato made a distinction between men of gold (the best), silver and bronze (average).
There is no universally agreed definition of intelligence.

In 1921, a survey was conducted where people were asked to define intelligence. There were over 13 definitions, including:

- ability to carry on abstract thinking
- capacity to carry on capacity
- proficiency in cognitive performance
- differential ability to solve problems

A survey in 1981 by Stermberg found that there were three major factors in intelligence:
1. Verbal ability (ie: someone is intelligent if they have good verbal ability)
2. Social competence
3. Practical ability (able to deal well with everyday problems)

The reason why there is so much confusion is because intelligence is a concept (like liberty, art and civilisation). Therefore people have different ideas and notions of what it is. Thus, although the same word is used, people attach different concepts to them. Therefore it is necessary to identify the different concepts.

These include:

a. Intelligence is property of behaviour
This argues that intelligence is a characteristic of behaviour, therefore an action is either intelligent or unintelligent.

b. Intelligence is a term for intellect in general
Cognitive ability, special abilty etc. are all intelligence.

c. Spearman's g (g = general intelligence)
Abilities only correlate to averages. Therefore, no matter how great one's intelligence is, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses due to the modular nature of the brain.

According to concepts a and b, one cannot argue that intelligence is inate (whereas concept c says it is).

IQ tests are used to identify the gifted, retarded, the learning disabled etc.
Although it is not an infallable means of testing intelligence, it is a generally good one.

In 1904, the education minister of France wanted to distinguish between lazy and mentally deficient children.
A psychologist by the name of Alfred Binet developed a test with thirty items (questions) in 1905. These questions included showing pictures of people and asking the children what emotions they were showing as well as pictures of certain objects.

This test was developed to determine a child's mental age (regardless of physical age). Binet said that the test was not a measure of intelligence, merely a diagnostic to discriminate between laziness and retardation.

Wilhelm Stern suggested:

(Mental Age / Physical Age) x 100 = Mental Quotient

Therefore a ten year child who is mentally seven has an MQ of 70 [because (7/10)x100 = 70, fairly low] whereas a six year old with the mental age of a twelve year old has an MQ of 200 [(12/6)x100=200, fairly high].

In 1917, an academic in California USA, developed the Stanford-Binet test.
This used Stern's formula, but was modified to become:

(Mental Age / Physical Age) x 100 = Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

The use of the IQ test has spread far beyond the education system (industry etc). However, the test becomes less effective after the age of 16 or 17 (mental age doesn't change much after that). However, since physical age will continue to increase, the actual IQ will diminish with age.

Weschler developed a test in the 1940s known as the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).
Weschler expressed IQ in terms of distribution as illustrated below:



...that'll do.