Sometimes a technology is so awe-inspiring that the imagination runs away with it - often far far away from reality. Robots are like that. A lot of big and ultimately unfulfilled promises were made in robotics early on based on preliminary successes.

You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs.

I would love to have a robot at home.

Robots have a rich and storied history in movies.

In the future when Microsoft leaves a security-flaw in their code it won't mean that somebody hacks your computer. It will mean that somebody takes control of your servant robot and it stands in your bedroom doorway sharpening a knife and watching you sleep.

Looking ahead future generations may learn their social skills from robots in the first place. The cute yellow Keepon robot from Carnegie Mellon University has shown the ability to facilitate social interactions with autistic children. Morphy at the University of Washington happily teaches gestures to children by demonstration.

'Robopocalypse' explores the intertwined fates of regular people who face a future filled with murderous machines. It follows them as humanity foments the robot uprising fails to recognize the coming storm and then is rocked to the core by methodical crippling attacks.

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.

I would do it today because the thing that appealed to me was not necessarily the mechanics of the robot but it was his personality and how funny and charming he was.

There was a failure to recognize the deep problems in AI for instance those captured in Blocks World. The people building physical robots learned nothing.