Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by its-summertime 20 days ago
Setting aside the history of anthropomorphism of robots using this term: https://sfdictionary.com/view/3048/clanker

A clanker doesn't clank? It feels more like an emotional name ­— a pet name or derogatory name — as opposed to a name that evokes a tool-like view of the thing. A typer? an autocompleter? auto-sed? LLM? All probably would have less emotional feeling to it due to being rooted in the actions performed.

1 comments

For me, "clanker" sounds funny, not derogatory. In the same way, for me "meatbag" sounds too funny to be an insult.

On the other hand "robot" sounds derogatory for me, as it etymologically suggests a slave who does forced work.

The oldest known term for "robots" was used by Homer in the Iliad, for the metallic (female) robots used by Hephaestus to do his work, and it was "amphipoloi", which is cognate with Latin "ancillae", which also means "servants" or "slaves", like the modern "robots".