So what do you think? I'm going to put up the ideas I was working on for the Cybertronian Physiology book I promised years ago. I hope you like it.

 

CybertronianBioSystems.com

Linky no worky.

Fixed the linky...

 

GREAT Idea BTW! I really enjoy when people get under the hood (pun intended).

good luck it should be interesting to hear your ideas

Looks interesting. Seems somewhat similar to a book I just finished Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul. It was a very interesting book, and a fun way to introduce people to philosophy if they've never been big fans before.

 

I'm looking forward to the developments of this.

 

Good luck.

Thanks to all! I hope to have the first actual article up in the next day or two. Hope you like.

Why do they need eyes? Why would they look so much like us?

That's why I really liked how the live-action movie gave us very alien and non-human looking Transformers. Some people complained that they were "ugly" but I really liked their other-worldly appearance. Making Transformers also behave other-worldly too is another trait which I think some writers handle better than others. I think G1 writer Bob Budiansky was one of the best at making the Transformers seem other-worldly.

 

Of course the real answer is Diaclone. :)

 

What does it mean to be a living machine? Does it mean they are just robots that have gained sentience? Is the Spark just a power source? Is their individuality simply a combination of programming and stored memory engrams? Or are they more?

The idea of Transformers being living and self-aware/sentient machines is something that's been around since its inception in 1984. As it's always been established in TF lore, the Transformers possess a living "soul." In G1 it was called the laser core or life essence - spawned from the Primal Essence created by their god Primus. In Beast Wars/Machines, the movie and Transformers Animated, the Primal Essence is manifested as the AllSpark (in BW/M it is the AllSpark Matrix).

 

The spark is not a power source. The Transformers are powered by fuel such as Energon. The spark is their "soul" and its nature is something that exhibits traits from souls according to Abrahamic religions (i.e.: possessing individuality and ability to retain such individuality and memories in the after life) and some traits from souls in Vedic religions like Hinduism and Buddhism (i.e.: cycling through multiple incarnations until achieving enlightenment and returning to Nirvana the Matrix)

 

What if they weren’t machines at all? What if they were living biological mechanoids? What if they were more like us than in just appearance? Could it be possible the only essential difference between them and us be the materials that were abundant on our separate home worlds and subsequently used in our creation?

That is again something that the movie also delves into.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron."

"You can call us Autobots for short."

The movie also demonstrated how Transformers are able to heal themselves (e.g.: Scorponok's tail) and are able to regenerate ammunition in the same way that we can grow hair or nails (only possibly at a faster rate - meaning that they can never run out of ammunition).

 

We now that Cybertron was originally an organic world until it was reformatted by Primus into the mechanical world that we are more familiar with as Cybertron. We now that the earliest race of Transformers were able to asexually self-reproduce via a process similar to mitotic cell division - an ability which was eventually lost due to the "collective sins" of their race, which led to the creation of the Swarm, which in turn evolved into the Vok. And that's not the only time Transformers have undergone natural evolution - the 2nd Generation Decepticons claimed to be a more highly evolved species of Transformers and attempted to wipe out their "primitive" ancestors in Generation 2.

 

Transformers "mitotic" reproduction

 

The Swarm and the Vok

 

In G1 we saw early inklings of Transformers intermingling with organic life, e.g.: binary bonding, Pretenders etc.

Lord Zarak (bonded to Scorponok) and Cloudburst

 

And in Beast Machines we saw its final culmination with the rise of technorganics on Cybertron.

 

Of course, technorganic creatures already existed on ancient Cybertron long before Transformers became the dominant species.

Why do they need eyes? Why would they look so much like us?

That's why I really liked how the live-action movie gave us very alien and non-human looking Transformers. Some people complained that they were "ugly" but I really liked their other-worldly appearance. Making Transformers also behave other-worldly too is another trait which I think some writers handle better than others. I think G1 writer Bob Budiansky was one of the best at making the Transformers seem other-worldly.

 

Of course the real answer is Diaclone. :)

 

What does it mean to be a living machine? Does it mean they are just robots that have gained sentience? Is the Spark just a power source? Is their individuality simply a combination of programming and stored memory engrams? Or are they more?

The idea of Transformers being living and self-aware/sentient machines is something that's been around since its inception in 1984. As it's always been established in TF lore, the Transformers possess a living "soul." In G1 it was called the laser core or life essence - spawned from the Primal Essence created by their god Primus. In Beast Wars/Machines, the movie and Transformers Animated, the Primal Essence is manifested as the AllSpark (in BW/M it is the AllSpark Matrix).

 

The spark is not a power source. The Transformers are powered by fuel such as Energon. The spark is their "soul" and its nature is something that exhibits traits from souls according to Abrahamic religions (i.e.: possessing individuality and ability to retain such individuality and memories in the after life) and some traits from souls in Vedic religions like Hinduism and Buddhism (i.e.: cycling through multiple incarnations until achieving enlightenment and returning to Nirvana the Matrix)

 

What if they weren’t machines at all? What if they were living biological mechanoids? What if they were more like us than in just appearance? Could it be possible the only essential difference between them and us be the materials that were abundant on our separate home worlds and subsequently used in our creation?

That is again something that the movie also delves into.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron."

"You can call us Autobots for short."

The movie also demonstrated how Transformers are able to heal themselves (e.g.: Scorponok's tail) and are able to regenerate ammunition in the same way that we can grow hair or nails (only possibly at a faster rate - meaning that they can never run out of ammunition).

 

We now that Cybertron was originally an organic world until it was reformatted by Primus into the mechanical world that we are more familiar with as Cybertron. We now that the earliest race of Transformers were able to asexually self-reproduce via a process similar to mitotic cell division - an ability which was eventually lost due to the "collective sins" of their race, which led to the creation of the Swarm, which in turn evolved into the Vok. And that's not the only time Transformers have undergone natural evolution - the 2nd Generation Decepticons claimed to be a more highly evolved species of Transformers and attempted to wipe out their "primitive" ancestors in Generation 2.

 

Transformers "mitotic" reproduction

 

The Swarm and the Vok

 

In G1 we saw early inklings of Transformers intermingling with organic life, e.g.: binary bonding, Pretenders etc.

Lord Zarak (bonded to Scorponok) and Cloudburst

 

And in Beast Machines we saw its final culmination with the rise of technorganics on Cybertron.

 

Of course, technorganic creatures already existed on ancient Cybertron long before Transformers became the dominant species.

 

That was one of the best reads I've had in a long time.

 

Even in the NightBeat Spotlight, when he was on the world inhabited by people who began working cybernetics into their organic systems, he mentioned the notion that his race may have started that way.

 

Of course there is also The Call of The Primitives where Primus himself states that he was involved in the creation of early aminal like Transformers who evolved. Alot of people dismiss that episode from TF lure but I don't.

 

From the laser core to the spark, Autobot/Decepticon to Maximal/Predicon, cybernetic to robotic to technorganic, you can see an obvious round robin evolution in the species. Headmasters powermasters and pretenders, as well as micromasters are all steps in the very mapable geneology of Cybertronians.

First off, cool post. Thanks. I did not know about the mitotic reproduction.

 

Why do they need eyes? Why would they look so much like us?

That's why I really liked how the live-action movie gave us very alien and non-human looking Transformers. Some people complained that they were "ugly" but I really liked their other-worldly appearance. Making Transformers also behave other-worldly too is another trait which I think some writers handle better than others. I think G1 writer Bob Budiansky was one of the best at making the Transformers seem other-worldly.

 

Of course the real answer is Diaclone. :)

 

There have been many different continuities in the transformers' "multi-verse" the Movie is one of them that this particular question does not apply to (as much), but in most of them the robots look like us (IE- one mouth, two eyes mostly, two arms,legs, bla, bla, bla...in the last two continuities they've even given Prime a mouth). OF COURSE the real answer is Diaclone, but that's why I said "I set aside the obvious reason of them being toys made by people in the real world...and started to ask some fun questions."

 

 

What does it mean to be a living machine? Does it mean they are just robots that have gained sentience? Is the Spark just a power source? Is their individuality simply a combination of programming and stored memory engrams? Or are they more?

The idea of Transformers being living and self-aware/sentient machines is something that's been around since its inception in 1984. As it's always been established in TF lore, the Transformers possess a living "soul." In G1 it was called the laser core or life essence - spawned from the Primal Essence created by their god Primus. In Beast Wars/Machines, the movie and Transformers Animated, the Primal Essence is manifested as the AllSpark (in BW/M it is the AllSpark Matrix).

 

The spark is not a power source. The Transformers are powered by fuel such as Energon. The spark is their "soul" and its nature is something that exhibits traits from souls according to Abrahamic religions (i.e.: possessing individuality and ability to retain such individuality and memories in the after life) and some traits from souls in Vedic religions like Hinduism and Buddhism (i.e.: cycling through multiple incarnations until achieving enlightenment and returning to Nirvana the Matrix)

 

I know the spark is not just a power source. That was kind of the point of the question. And, as I stated, I've always liked the idea of the TFs being alive, and that it has been priviouslly established that they are living. The point of the inquerry isn't really IF they live but HOW they live. It will be like a book on TF "biology" (if you will). Sort of a high school text written in the voice of Ratchet on the "mechanics" of the cybertronian body. It's an answer to how cybertronians quantify their existence. I'm sure there must be transformer "atheists". I mean, Primus hasn't shown his face for a few trillion years, right? There must be some (if not most) bots who just don't go for "all that 'Primus' scrap". Even for the believers, the simple fact that they have mechanics, doctors, and scientists tells that they have studded their own anatomy, and have learned how they "work", so that they can be able to fix themselves.

 

What if they weren’t machines at all? What if they were living biological mechanoids? What if they were more like us than in just appearance? Could it be possible the only essential difference between them and us be the materials that were abundant on our separate home worlds and subsequently used in our creation?

That is again something that the movie also delves into.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron."

"You can call us Autobots for short."

The movie also demonstrated how Transformers are able to heal themselves (e.g.: Scorponok's tail) and are able to regenerate ammunition in the same way that we can grow hair or nails (only possibly at a faster rate - meaning that they can never run out of ammunition).

 

Again how not if. The movie mentions these tings, this site intends to explain them. I'm sort of an engineer at hart, and a fantasy nut. I love to find out how things work, or how they were made. I like to think of ways that impossible, imaginary things could work in real life. So, really I'm just combining two of my hobbies into one. But of course, it's all just a bit of fun. When it comes down to it, this is just a fan site, and everything on it will be fan-fiction. I just hope people enjoy some of my ideas.

...the creation of the Swarm, which in turn evolved into the Vok...

The Swarm and the Vok

 

What? The Swarm evolved into the Vok. I was always under the impression they were two different species. Where do you get this info Goki.

 

The mitotic reproduction thing was cool though.