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After reading the recently-revived question about are Terminators cyborgs something occurred to me. If the flesh covering a Terminator is "real", as in living and indistinguishable from actual human flesh, it needs to be fed in some way. See the characteristics of life.

The question mentions that only the terminator from the TV show has ever been shown to eat, so how does the flesh stay alive if it's not getting nutrients somehow? Has this been addressed in the series somewhere? Does the endoskeleton have a nutrient pack or something?

This somewhat connects to the original question in that if the flesh has been altered in some way to not need nutrients and at the same time not die, then you could argue that it's not "real" human/living flesh, which would then put the definition of "cyborg" under question. But I thought it warranted a separate question.

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  • Please note that it requires a lot less nutrients than a fully body, as the most metabolically expensive stuff (brain, temperature control, main muscles) are not present. A healthy human can survive weeks without food, and days without having any negative effects, so a Terminator's skin could easily survive weeks without food, plenty enough for the mission. Commented 2 hours ago

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Allegedly, and depending on how much weight you wish to give to early drafts and material planned but never shown.

The early drafts showed the Terminator eating:

Some kids who have gathered nervously at the curb step back as she walks out, gets in the car, and drives away. He pulls a Milky Way bar out of his pocket and eats it as he drives, in two bites, without removing the wrapper.

A later draft removed this scene but had Reese describe the need to eat:

“It has to eat and breathe to keep the skin alive, though a lot less than us... and there's a little tiny heart and internal organs.”

While it wasn't shown on screen in the end, I don't believe any of the movies directly contradicted the need to eat some quantity of biological material.

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    +1 Plus we know from The Terminator that their injuries rot and start smelling if untreated. So it has to have some sort of biological nature. Commented 9 hours ago

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