Proof of Concept

After the Population Contraction, there was a strong demand for workers, the demand far outstripping the available supply of people. Various repopulation projects were put in place, ranging from clones to autons to fill in the labor gap. One of the options offered was the construction of organic based robots. The Biodroid has a body made of tank grown and bioprinted organic components, and a central nervous system that is cybernetic in nature. The premise was that the organic nature of the body had the advantages of being inexpensive to produce, was self healing, and didn't require access to an industrial scale power grid. The cybernetic brain made it reliable, controllable, and it didn't suffer from all the sentience and legal restrictions that human labor was subject to.

It was not well accepted.

The BioDroid Failure

The Biodroids suffered horribly from an effect known as the Uncanny Valley. They looked mostly human, but they didn't act even remotely human. This strongly aliened people around the biodroids, and radically decreased their efficiency in mixed groups. When working along side autonic laborers, the biodroids lacked the strength and endurance of the machines, and likewise fell behind. Finally, possessing cybernetic brains, the biodroids proved vulnerable to hacking and cyber hijacking.