Plural form sometimes used for autonomous mechanical beings or android-type creatures, though very rarely used in standard English.
From 'auto-' (self) + 'men' (plural of man). A speculative or science fiction-derived term, not standard in formal usage.
The term 'automen' appears mostly in early science fiction—it's how writers imagined self-operating robot people before the word 'android' or 'robot' became standard.
Uses masculine 'men' as universal default for autonomous beings/automata. Reflects historical pattern where generic terms default to male, excluding women from conceptual frameworks.
Avoid as generic term. Specify: automatons, autonomous agents, or self-operating machines.
["autonomous agents","automatons","self-operating systems"]
Women engineers (Ada Lovelace, Hedy Lamarr) pioneered automated/computational thinking but are rarely credited in 'automaton' discourse.
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