Every few weeks, it seems, a new story hits the headlines about the latest breakthrough in the field of robotics. Innovations are happening all the time, of course. The term "robotics" encompasses a global system of technology, industry and research. But certain kinds of robot stories break through into popular culture with alarming regularity.
Taken together, these stories can provoke a certain unease. Read enough of them in a row, and the question presents itself: Are we watching the robot revolution take place before our very eyes? Will our future robot overlords look back, 100 years from now, and regard these moments with digital fondness as they populate their own history books? (Or databases or holo-archives or whatever they have in store?)
Forthwith, a look at recent developments in robotics that could well prove historical, albeit for all the wrong reasons.