(Dang it! Did not mean to delete that.)

They might sexually reproduce in a few contintuties. Now does it means the same way we do it? No and I hope not. It could be genetic engineering. There's g1 Wheelie having parents in Wheelie, The Wildboy of Quintesson and there's a little blue bot holding his mom's hand on the far right in one of the orginal cartoon. Him ( I'm assuming) and Wheelie could've been built, but we never saw any childbot being built. Only the adults. They never explain these childbots origins and they shouldn't. Let's not forget about the decepticons kids in the Victory comic.

And for the second paragraph, I agreed with. We can't make them too much like us, but neither should we make them too robotic and alien. Half and half I say.

 

I always thought its the same reason why technology ages from years of use. The old accent was just a product of his voice chip/vocal processors getting worn out. Kup could have gotten new parts but maybe he thought it was pointless or that replacing something took him off his game.

 

Probably because he got married and had kids. Same with Trion but he's on his third marriage.

 

In humans

And I said it was like a wart not exactly a wart

 

Depends on continuity

 

There are plants on earth that suffer from that issue, they usually require outside assistance to reproduce

There was also an alien race on Star Trek that required the help of a third sex

 

We are not machines. A machine is artificially constructed not naturally occurring. And the Transformers are not really living organisms, they are machines built by the Quintessons... at least in the G1 cartoon which seems to be the source of the topic.

 

In away we are. Quoting the definition ( according to google "an an appartatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts each with a definite function and together performing a particular." We have parts that function together and does a particular task. Okay we don't fit all the definition, but we do fit some. Transformers aren't artificial made in every continuity. In one, they natural appear. It was the first Marvel comic they appear in. And other continuites they pop out of the ground. Machines don't pop out of the ground. Also they are living organism, but not in every continuity. They have genes and are made out of nanomachinery cells. They even stated to be living organism. Unlike other robots, they fit most if not all the seven life of critera.
Mechanobiology 101

 

The transformers only appear 'natural' when they emerge in the Marvel comic because they spring out of an effectively mechanical world imbued with the essence of an incredibly powerful astral being. In short, a distinctly unnatural, or even supernatural situation.

As usual, you're really, really reaching, and mixing a whole bunch of continuities and apocrypha in to try and justify it.

 

That's why I stated in some continuites or in this or that continuity. Sometimes I just forget to say those. I also mentiont that in one continuity they appear naturally. I even stated it was the first Marvel comic. I did say in all continuties they appear naturally. Also I'm not using apocrypha. I done my research and so has that guy ( Tramp). We may not agree all on the samething, but we have done our research. Transformers do fit most, if not all the seven life of critera. I'll give a few examples. In the MTMTE #8 pg 15 , it mention homostatis. Marvel g2, Dreamworks, Transformers Animated, some G1 continuties and Prime all mention CNA. In the Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, it stated that protoforms are made up of nanomachinery. We haven't seen any Cybertronians grow, but that's because most started out as adults and the childbots like Wheelie may take hundreds of years to reach full heighg. However I won't be surprise if they do grow. After all they are made out of living metal.

 

Actually there are many , or maybe better said as a “school of thought” that believe that if you take away the Metaphysical aspects of human life, meaning the idea of a soul and overall consciousness that we are much more than biochemical machines

From what I recall, in that case the “ground” in question was the body of their God

You don’t even realize how you just contradicted yourself

You should turn that sentence around

Not in every continuity

That was overwritten when they introduced their god Primus

So the idea that they came about naturally would have been requlated to myth

Again that depends on the continuity

 

That's philosophy not science. It's intended as a metaphor.

As technology advances it's going to be harder to tell the difference between real naturally occurring life and Artificial intelligence. It's been made the topic in a lot of sci fi, Star Trek even did it twice. Once with Data and again with the hologram Doctor on Voyager. Both of these machines which were built by humans claimed to be alive... and oddly both look exactly like their creators...

Johnny 5 from Short Circuit also had this issue... that was literally the entire plot of the movie.

I'm sure there's more but honestly they can't really be alive, they were manufactured, programmed, and only simulate life. They're no more alive than a toaster... and not the Brave Little Toaster, freaking everything is alive in children's cartoons.

 

Not so much as a metaphor but as an alternative way of looking at things from many who don’t believe in any sort of higher power at all

No afterlife no soul no deities
Bio chemical machines

Funny you bring in those examples from Star Trek, in fact the episode in which had a trial to determine if Data was truly alive the humanoid life form was described as a “Chemical electric machine” by way of comparison not Metaphor

 

I don't think the concept of a soul has anything to do with deities. Souls can exist without the presence of a deity of any kind. Afterlife maybe but that depends on what kind of after life we're talking about. Heaven and Hell are directly related to deities but the concept of souls just wander the Earth doesn't require a deity to exist.

Also the Transformers actually have souls, or at least something equivalent to a soul. But that doesn't really equate to life either cause if the Quintessons created them than their Sparks/Laser Cores whatever you want to call them were also created by them. They didn't just naturally develop the way real souls do.

We don't really know if souls even exist or how they develop naturally but assuming they do exist we just seem to be born with them. Robots aren't born, they're built.

That said this also gets into a bit of a confusing territory when you take into considerations things like the Diagnostic Drone from Beast Machines which we know does not have a spark. Only the Transformers who have Sparks are ever considered to be "alive" while drones are just machines which is confusing when they're all machines.

Maybe the Drones could be like the equivalent to Homunculus, humans without souls. But I think the Homonculus are more alive than a Transformer with a spark because they're still somewhat natural... in the sense that you can't just flip a switch to turn them on and off and their personalities aren't just programming, they develop the way a regular human would. Plus with life forms when they die they actually stay dead, they can't come back the way a machine can. You can easily just take a Spark or computer program and transfer it to a new machine. Same software, different hardware. You can even make multiple copies of the same Program and have them all running at the same time. But none of this is possible with real life forms, there's only ever one individual you can't copy or transfer that soul into another body. You might be able to make a digital copy of a person's memories but that wouldn't really be a soul, it wouldn't be them. It'd be more like a biography of that person's life than the actual person.

With a machine the original was digital to begin with so a copy would be indistinguishable from the original. But with a real life there is a clear distinction between the original life form and a digital copy. Machine death is only temporary because of this but true death is permanent.

The death part is kind of important because how can something really be alive if it can't ever really die. One can't really exist without the other. If you can't kill it, then it must not be alive to begin with.

 

’
Sure they can exist separately but the two concepts also do go hand-in-hand

It’s kind a like the singing all Catholics are Christian but not all Christians or Catholics

That’s only one way to look at it , The problem is the cartoon never really went into that so it’s open to any interpretation

Not for every continuity, not even in every G1 continuity

Yeah no solid answers

I understand that this is your believe, but the truth is is that I don’t think we, as a race, will ever truly been able to qualify Just exactly what life, as in a soul/persona/Consciousness really is

If there truly is no metaphysical aspect to it , And if all it is is this some of our memories, and if those memories can be digitized, Then maybe one day they’ll be able to copy those memories and it would be just as indistinguishable as you described it is for the machines

 

Well if you notice Kup wasn’t the only one who aged. Both Alpha Trion and Irionhide aged

 

I never felt Ironhide looked the age they said he was

 

I know but there were times where he felt useless and old