History Main / MeatSackRobot

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'':

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* So far in real life, this has happened in a limited way with only with cockroaches and some other bugs. (read [[http://www.robaid.com/bionics/biorobotics-remotely-controlled-cockroaches.htm here]] and [[https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/07/biorobotic-roaches-can-can-use-microphones-to-search-rubble-for-survivors/ here]] for details). Those technologically modified arthropods were made into beings remotely controlled by human handlers rather than an artificial intelligence, though further advances in technology may make this possible. Even then, trying to perform such experiments on other species and especially fellow humans will certainly bring up ethical concerns.

* ''Film/Virus'': The titular virus starts as a extra-terrestrial storm cloud that is transferred into a oceanic ship with advanced robotics but not more advanced than body parts the pesky humans that crewed the ship cue body horror.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarchaserTheLegendOfOrin'': In this [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] ''Franchise/StarWars'' rip-off, one element unique to this film was the existence of the "Man-Droids". These are robotic beings who take limbs (with one scene implying they don't bother killing their captives before dismembering them) and some other organs from living beings in order to incorporate that organic matter into their robotic frames. Given that they reside in a swamp (which is filled with water which in turn can rust metal over time), the addition of organic matter to their bodies is presumably a counter measure against that.

* ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'': Fulgore is a robot created by [[MegaCorp Ultratech]] with the intention of selling it as weapons of war to highest bidders. While it for most of the duration of the series has a human brain, that of [[spoiler: Chief Thunder's brother Eagle]], however Fulgore is not a cyborg in the sense of this trope as it only contains a brain for use as part of its CPU, which operates on its own AI). It is subverted in the post season three release when it has developed a consciousness of its own from absorbing and recording the brain patterns of [[spoiler: Eagle]], of whom became freed from it due to work of [[spoiler: Chief Thunder and [[AnIcePerson Glacius]].]]

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'', servitors are "robots" made from lobotomised criminals or vat grown clones implanted with cybernetics and used for menial labour. This is to get around rules that forbade the creation of true AIs thanks to a RobotWar in the backstory.

* So far in real life, this has happened in a limited way with only with cockroaches and some other bugs. (read [[http://www.robaid.com/bionics/biorobotics-remotely-controlled-cockroaches.htm here]] and [[https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/07/biorobotic-roaches-can-can-use-microphones-to-search-rubble-for-survivors/ here]] for details). Those technologically modified arthropods were made into remotely beings controlled by Human handlers rather than an Artificial intelligence, though further advances in technology may make this possible. Even then, trying to perform such experiments on other species and especially fellow humans will certainly bring up ethical concerns.

See also OrganicTechnology. Overlaps with certain variants of ArtificialHuman. Compare WetwareCPU, WetwareBody, and LivingBattery. Not to be confused with RidiculouslyHumanRobot, though Meat Sack Robots acting like Ridiculously Human Robots are not precluded.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'', servators are "robots" made from lobotomised criminals or vat grown clones implanted with cybernetics and used for menial labour. This is to get around rules that forbade the creation of true AIs thanks to a RobotWar in the backstory.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': The titular Evangelions piloted by Shinji, Asuka, and Rei, and etc. were made from organic bodies cloned from the Angels with armor, weapons, computer networks, and other technological features. They were intended to be this, but some of the Evangelions themselves subvert this trope by managing to develop their own consciousnesses, with the case of EVA-01 (Shinji Ikari's) being due to [[spoiler: having the soul of his mother Yui Ikari due to her body being merged into it]].

The other wiki has an article on such a hypothetical machine called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biorobotics Biorobotics]]

See also OrganicTechnology. Related to certain variants of ArtificialHuman. Also related to the WetwareCPU, WetwareBody, and LivingBattery. Not to be confused with RidiculouslyHumanRobot, though Meat Sack Robots acting like Ridiculously Human Robots is not precluded.

A defining trait of this type of Robotic entity is that the thoroughly machine AI governing an entity that is partly biological. As a result of such a reversal of an artificially created intelligence directly controlling tissues that were of naturally evolved beings (or possibly synthetically created living tissue in some cases), it is a creation that displays [[BuffySpeak machinely]] unnatural tendencies despite being composed of biological tissue and thus likely to invoke UncannyValley from some of the audience.

* A human with cybernetic implants that have a highly advanced AI (internal or external) that, upon its host's death or presumed life long incapacitation (e.g. a coma), takes over the biological mass of its host for its own purpose and continued independent existence. If this process is committed by an AI by a still living and conscious living host, this results in WetwareBody and/or UnwillingRoboticization.

* Machines incorporate biological tissue into themselves due to fully metallic and technological bodies having certain drawbacks (e.g. magnetism, inability to evade metal detectors). The Terminators from the franchise of the same name are a good example of this variant.

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* ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has [[GravityMaster Nightmare]] and the [[BrainInAJar B.O.X. security robot]]. The former is a [[PowerOfTheVoid black hole spewing]] robot w ith organic components (including a [[BodyHorror six-eyed melting face with green skin]]) while the later is a armored [[MechaMooks security bot]] that contains an organic brain as part of its AI's neural network. It's their living parts that allow them to be infected by the [[TheAssimilator X Parasites]].

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* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** The Cybermen. The backstories vary DependingOnTheWriter, but in all their incarnations, they're a race of robots that "[[FateWorseThanDeath assimilate]]" humans and other humanoid lifeforms transforming them into full robots like them, only maintain their brains (and sometimes [[BodyHorror other "parts"]]) to make them work.
** Some of the Clockwork Robots that appear in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]" use human parts to make their mechanism work... or simply because some of them [[PinocchioSyndrome want to be humans]].
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** The Borg [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] various species (via injecting {{Nanomachines}} into their victims) into its [[HiveMind AI's unifying conscious]] called "the Collective" [[UnwillingRoboticization whether their victims consent or not]].
** In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', the Borg queen grafts living skin tissue onto Data's arm (Data being a purely artificial android), allowing him to feel human sensations, something he has longed to do but was not capable of. This was an attempt to lure him over to her side. (A more limited example than most others, in that we're talking about a small patch of skin, and Data was fully functional without it, but it still fits the "reverse cyborg" definition)

* This is ZigZagged in ''VideoGame/Portal2'', where the homicidal AI named [=GLaDOS=] is forcibly removed from her normal robotic body and plugged into a potato. She's still able to communicate but she's completely dependent on others. This is subverted though as it's implied [[spoiler:she's not an AI but the downloaded mind of a human being]].

* ''Film/BladeRunner'' and its sequel ''Film/BladeRunner2049'': The Replicants. In the novel from which 1982's Blade runner was adapted from (''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'' by Philip Dick), Roy and his comrades were outright androids.
* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'': In the last film, Film/TheMatrixRevolutions, the Ex-Agent Smith, a malicious program that formerly served the Matrix, [[WetwareBody took possession]] of one of Neo's fellow members of the Human resistance in an attempt to kill him in the real world. This trope applies in that the human has a technological implant, from which Smith (a thoroughly non-biological entity) was able to use to manifest himself in the real world via a human host.
* The eponymous ''Film/RoboCop1987'' was designed to essentially be a robot using a critically injured cop's central nervous system as a WetwareCPU. They left enough of a digestive system to sustain the brain and spine, and grafted his face on for looks, but he's otherwise a robot meant to be subservient to programming. Him partially regaining his previous identity was an unexpected accident.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'': Even though the terminators through out the franchise have been referred to as cyborgs (which in the strictest sense of anything composed of biological material and robotic technology can be true), however as noted in the page quote, they are non-living machines with living tissue attached to themselves instead of being living beings with technological modifications grafted onto their bodies.

** Also some of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace Clockwork]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Robots]] use human parts to make their mechanism work... or simply because some of them [[PinocchioSyndrome want to be humans]].

* In the penultimate store of the ''Literature/IRobot'' collection, a runner for a political office is suspected of being a robot. The United States Robotics claim they did create an artificial body for a robot as an experiment, but it never had a brain. It was stated to be flesh grown upon a plastic skeleton. Also, the more advanced RidiculouslyHumanRobots featured in the later ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'' books might be of that type (instead of the older plastic over metal design), but it's never made explicit.

* Seems to be the case with [[{{Music/Styx}} Mr Roboto]]:
-->I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin
-->My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.

Related to certain variants of ArtificialHuman. Related to the WetwareCPU, WetwareBody, and LivingBattery. Not to be confused with RidiculouslyHumanRobot, though Meat Sack Robots acting like Ridiculously Human Robot is not precluded.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': The Human-AI-Transports (HAITs) made by the AI known as The Palm, are human bodies modified with circuitry allowing copies of The Palm to inhabit and control those bodies.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the character Doythaban Gyo has an AI called Haban built into his cyborg implants; they do not fit this trope. However [[spoiler: after a gate clone of Gyo is [[ItMakesSenseInContext created by an alien race who want to torture it for information]], the clone Gyo is shot in the head; medical intervention is able to save the copy of Haben, [[WetwareBody leaving only the AI in control of the clone body]].]]

* The eponymous ''Film/RoboCop1987'' was designed to essentially be a robot using a critically injured cop's central nervous system as a WetwareCPU. They left enough of a digestive system to sustain the brain and spine, and grafted his face on for looks, but he's otherwise a robot meant to be subservient to programming. Him partially regaining his previous identity was an unexpected accident.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has [[GraviMaster Nightmare]] and the [[BrainInAJar B.O.X. security robot]]. The former is a [[PowerOfTheVoid black hole spewing]] robot w ith organic components (including a [[BodyHorror six-eyed melting face with green skin]]) while the later is a armored [[MechaMooks security bot]] that contains an organic brain as part of its AI's neural network. It's their living parts that allow them to be infected by the [[TheAssimilator X Parasites]].

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The Borg [[TheAssimilator assimilates]] various species (via injecting {{Nanomachines}} into their victims) into its [[HiveMind AI's unifying conscious]] called "the Collective" [[UnwillingRoboticization whether their victims consent or not]].

* Such a machine is created in order to have something with human tissue to experiment on without harming actual human beings (though depending on how advanced an AI is, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman it can create ethical issues of its own]]). The Replicants from the Blade Runner movies demonstrate this variant.

* ''Film/BladeRunner'' and its sequel ''Film/BladeRunner2049'': The Replicants (though in the original novel (''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'' by Philip Dick) from which 1982's Blade runner was adapted from, Roy and his comrades were androids.

-> '''John:''' Holy shit! You're really real! I mean, you're like a machine underneath, right? But sort of alive outside?
-> '''Terminator:''' I'm a cybernetic organism. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.

* Machines incorporate biological tissue into themselves due fully metallic and technological bodies having certain drawbacks (e.g. magnetism, inability to evade metal detectors). The Terminators from the franchise of the same name are a good example of this variant.

Everyone knows that a {{Cyborg}} is a living being with technological components of one sort or another grafted onto his/her body. Though sometimes in fiction, it is done in the opposite direction in which a AI controlled machine grafts biological tissue into its being. How such a robotic entity is created can be for one of or a combination of a variety of reasons:

* ''Franchise/TheMatrix'': In the last film, Film/TheMatrixRevolutions, the Ex-Agent Smith, a malicious program that formerly served the Matrix, [[WetwareBody took possession]] of one of Neo's fellow members of the Human resistance in an attempt to kill him in the real world. This trope applies in that the human has technological implant, from which Smith (a thoroughly non-biological entity) was able to use to manifest himself in the real world via a human host.