Looking back, I phrased the above rather clumsily. I believe I can modify it to clarify:
"Androids" are a subset of "robots", being the type of robot designed to resemble humans.
Hum, I thought the idea of an "android" was an artificial being that's constructed using organic (or organic like) parts. As opposed to robots, who are generally portrayed as metal or plastic.
The replicants in Blade Runner are androids. They have cells. Whereas Terminator was a robot, because under the human looking face there's a manufactured metal structure.
A being composed of both mechanical and organic parts would be a "cyborg". I think the Terminator (the original Schwarzenegger model) is technically a cyborg since it has metal skeleton and musculature with an organic flesh "chassis".
The
Blade Runner replicants appear to be completely organic, not robots at all -- as do the new-model Cylons in
Battlestar Glactica. In each case, they are virtually indistinguishable from born-humans down to the cellular level, necessitating complicated tests to know for sure.
The Terminator, replicants, and Cylons really blur the lines between robot, cyborg, and android. It's hard to say definitively what they are.
