I'm specifically thinking of an AI, robot or android with near-human intelligence. The kind that you'd expect to see as a major character on a sci-fi show, acting almost indistinguishably from the humans, except for being really good with computers, then in one episode having to argue that he/she (it?) should have the same basic rights as all the human characters.
So, is there a word for someone prejudiced against or afraid of non-organic beings such as androids?
P.S. The motivation was this SFF chat comment, which uses the term "racism" in reference to Data (from Star Trek: TNG) being passed up for promotion. That doesn't seem like the right term to me, but I can't think of a better one.
Best Answer
The word "automatonophobia" covers a fear of some robots. It comes from combining automatos (neuter, automaton) meaning "acting on its own" with phobos, meaning fear. But it also applies to a fear of any representation of a sentient being -- ventriloquists' dummies, dolls, wax figures, and so on. Of course, not all robots look like androids
The word at least has the purity of etymological descent from Greek, which is more than can be said for "robotphobia" and "robophobia," which have some cyberpresence. The word "robot" comes from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor or drudgery, and was coined by Czech writer Karel Čapek for his 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots).