My two cents on a fun and interesting dialogue! I would tend not to
include musical boxes, orchestrions and player/reproducing pianos as
robots since they act on themselves. The Vorsetzers (push-up players)
act on other devices according to a program and thus I would call them
robots.
Another example could be a MIDI controller in my PC. When I listen to
a MIDI file through my computer speakers, I doubt that anyone would
consider it a robot, yet connect a MIDI-controlled band organ or piano
and you might have a point, though here it's electronic controls, not
physical.
So I leave you with a question: would you consider a machine a robot
that only acted on itself?
Eliyahu Shahar
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